Castles; stone circles; picturesque fishing villages and harboursThere are many and various points of interest, all around the Ards Peninsula area and indeed all the way up the North Antrim coast and on the South Down coast where we will travel over the days.
Among these are National Trust properties, from grand neo-classical Mountstewart House and gardens to the little shoreline cottages of Kearney Village. There are also the Castle Ward and Rowallane estates / gardens. On the Saturday trip which will up the coast road, Giant’s Causeway direction, we’ll pass by (and could stop at) the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. See National Trust – Coast and Countryside. There is more information about places and history on the belfastguzzi.com site. Strangford Lough page on belfastguzzi site. More info at belfastguzzi.com Contact: belfastguzzi@googlemail.com | Ards TT
Lea-Francis, Frazer Nash, Lagonda, Bugatti, Alfa-Romeo, Bentley, Mercedes Benz, Talbot, MG Midget, Maserati, Singer, and Delahaye. Roads at the north end of the Ards Peninsula made up the 13.7 mile triangle course of the historic Ards TT. The first six hour race was held in 1928. The TT race continued very successfully each year until 1936 when one of the competing cars crashed at Newtownards killing eight spectators and injuring 40 others. The Ards TT was never held again. See here for more info. Kirkistown racetrack
Kirkistown is a short hop from where we are staying at Portaferry. The circuit is one of a number of former airbases on the peninsula. Airbases
The first one that you’ll ride past as you head onto the peninsula is the still active Ards Airfield. RAF Ballyhalbert and RAF Kirkistown On down the peninsula is Ballyhalbert. Now it’s a caravan site. It was a Royal Air Force station during the war. (RAF Kirkistown was a satellite to the larger Ballyhalbert.) It was a Fighter Command base where the primary weapon was the Supermarine Spitfire. The base provided local protection from Luftwaffe raids on Belfast and the rest of the province. Other aircraft operated from the base were the Hawker Hurricane, Bristol Beaufighter, P-51 Mustang and Boulton Paul Defiant night fighter. During its lifetime, Ballyhalbert was home to RAF, WAAF, Army, Royal Navy and United States Air Force personnel. Servicemen from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Poland also saw duty at Ballyhalbert. In 1945 Ballyhalbert Airfield transferred to the Admiralty and became a Royal Naval Air Station commissioned as HMS Corncrake. On 17 July 1945 Kirkistown Airfield was commissioned as HMS Corncrake II. Today, the Kirkistown site is a regular venue for car and motorbike races.
http://www.controltowers.co.uk/B/Ballyhalbert.htm
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