Erinvale (Upper Malone Rd) - City Hall

Bus route 8 
Erinvale

My money is on Brian.

Bus up the Malone Rd this morning with Brian. 

The route back to the City Hall was all familiar ground to us but it was good to be starting out on a new challenge.

We started by running down to the Mary Peters Track to see her new statue.

I just about remember her from my schooldays but she is even older than me.

Next we followed the Queens University parkrun course; I must give this one another try soon.  
See www.parkrun.org.uk if you have never been to a parkrun (you don’t even have to be able to run).  Great fun and eighty thousand people, every weekend, can’t be wrong.

 
Then it was along the Burma Road (built from demolished air-raid shelters) to the old lock keepers cottage at Newforge.   

Newforge lock-keepers cottage.

A tiny house which amazingly used to be home to a family of twelve.  Today there were two men, six women and a big fire inside but no food; so Brian and I didn’t stay too long.

 

Back to the towpath and up to Lagan Meadows for some hill training.  Belfast’s original water supply came from here and the pipeline to the city centre gave names to: Conduit Street, Basin Lane and Fountain Street.

We followed the Lagan to the Gasworks and the ran down Albert Street to St Malachy’s Chapel. I like the story of the priest who agreed to silence its bell to avoid disturbing the making of whiskey at nearby Dunville’s Distillery.

 
Today’s run ended at the new Robinson & Cleaver cafe.  Apparently the first floor balcony, with views over the City Hall, is a great place for a meal outside. It was my round, so we made do with a cup of tea on the ground floor.



(Next run - early December)

Belfast Bus Runs

BELFAST BUS RUNS

People sometimes say that Belfast is a dull city, without much green space or things of interest.  This blog is an attempt to prove them wrong.

There are 12 main bus routes within the city; the plan is to travel out to the terminus of each and then run back to the City Hall.  Sounds easy, because most are downhill - but some of the runs are a lot longer than you would expect and the routes back will be diverted through as much parkland as I can find. 

All will end in a different city-centre tea shop.