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Portrush
Portrush maps
Historic maps of Portrush and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Portrush maps
Portrush area books
Displaying 1 of 5 books about Portrush and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Portrush
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Portrush.
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Summers in Portrush
We lived in Belfast and our summer holidays were in Portrush. My father was a pianist and his dance band played the summer season at the Seabank Hotel. I and my sister remember playing on the beach at The Arcadia as this was a safe beach. Barry's amusement arcade was visited frequently as the weather was usually wet and cold. We would get on the beach and make a dash for the water and get out again in a hurry...then it was off to Barry's. It was wonderful to see that the Arcadia was still there when I returned from Australia many years later. I visit Portrush every time I'm home...and have considered living there one day. I have many photos taken with my mother at age two, looking at the boats in the harbour. Shops with buckets and spades, not plastic, and windmills on sticks...
Harbour Memories
I have very dear memories of Portrush in the 60's. My mum was born there. She lived with her Mum and Dad and two brothers and one sister in Harbour Road. Mum and her sister came over to England in the 50's. We used to go to Portrush for our holidays. We would stay with my Grandparents on Harbour Road. My grandfather owned a dozen little rowing boats which he used to hire out to the summer visitors. We would go out in the boats every day and I used to pull a little toy boat behind me and fish for crabs on a line. I remember seeing a seal in the water for the first time and thinking it was a dogs head floating. We would spend lovely summer days on the sand and I remember watching a big firework display on Ramore Head. This was also the time of my first bag of crisps with a little blue salt bag inside. I returned to Portrush in... Read more
County Antrim memories
Good Old Days.
I was a boy 8 years of age when my family fled the bombing of Belfast to the small community of Cardy which is approx. 3 miles from Carrowdore on the road to Ballywalter. The year was 1940 and times were tough with worries of the war and little enough food to feed 11 hungry kids to feed. Mum with 3 sisters and 1 sister-in-law with 11 kids were all crammed into a small 2-room thatched cottage without running water, lighting by Aladdin lantern and the toilet was a small one-holer behind the house. During the winter months 'going potty' was only for the very brave or desperate. We had 2 large fireplaces with only the main one could be used since the second room was covered with beds from wall to wall. Our fireplace had the arm that swung over the fire and was the most over-used item in the house except for the potty. My sister June (Canada) brother Frank (California) and myself Joe (North Carolina) all went... Read more
Downs Road, Newcastle
I remember living in Downs Road, Newcastle at about 3 years old (1944). We lived in a house opposite a green and the sea beyond. When my younger sister was only a few months old, for some reason the night before, my mother put her in a different place in the bedroom. It's a good thing she did because that night the ceiling fell in and a huge lump of plaster was in the cot where her head would have been, I remember that incident. I remember starting school. It was a nearby school, I wonder if it is still there.? Also we had friends who lived in Newcastle, we visited one day and our friend had left his keys in his car just outside his house, the road was on a slight hill. I got into the car and set it going. Our friend saw the car going past his front window down the hill and shot out and stopped the car and dragged me out of the... Read more
Home Again
I remember this shot very well. My dad had his fishing boat there, he would take us to Bangor for the day from this spot. To be sure some of you would remember Geordy McFall. My uncle Hammie Loughlin once gave me a beautiful night shot of the castle all lit up from this view, unfortunately apparently too beautiful as the picture was later stolen during a move. It is amazing to me to see this shot - makes me homesick!!!!!
Michelle Feist (McFall).
BELFAST-I.O.M. STEAMER,FENELLA 1897
HOLIDAY TO I.O.M. WITH MUM,DAD & ANN.
ULSTER
My childhood memories go to Ballyclare, Blackhead, Carrickfergus and last but not least, dear Whitehead. My late mother came from Whitehead, and as children, my sister and I often had wonderful holidays with relations, exploring the town and surroundings, especially walking to Blackhead up and around back to Whitehead..one time, many years later, my cousin who lived in Whitehead, said, will you take her for a walk, walk her off her feet.. no such luck boy, I walked you off your feet!! My Nana's sister had a house on the Esplanade, then later moved into town, near the picture theatre... McCaffterty... last time I was in Antrim, stayed at Islandmagee, this was for a weekend in 1996 from memory... would dearly love a return visit.... happy memories, even to the sea water swimming pool on the Esplanade at Whitehead...shall leave more memories to my sister...
