My Favorite A to Z Travel Destinations — Holywood
It’s where my Irish cousins live.
No, not that Hollywood. Hollywood, California has two “ls.” Holywood, County Down, Northern Ireland has only one “l” Both towns share the same pronunciation, but they don’t seem to have anything else in common!
The Irish Holywood lies on the shores of Belfast Lough (rhymes with “dock”) just five miles east of downtown Belfast.
We have visited Northern Ireland three times in our travels and each time we met our Irish cousins Henry and Geraldine. They live in Holywood.
Our visit in 2002
I was working on my genealogy in 2001 and decided to post a few queries on Irish genealogy boards to see if I could find any relatives there. Well, it so happens that Henry and Geraldine are also amateur genealogists as well as Geraldine’s sister Joan who noticed my query and forwarded it to her sister.
We communicated a few times and soon my wife and I started making plans for traveling to Ireland. Then in March 2002 we flew to Dublin and then took the train to Belfast. Our new-found cousins met us at the station.
It was our first visit to Northern Ireland and our hosts led us on tours all over the western portion of the country: the Giants Causeway and the Antrim coast on one day; on another day the Ards Peninsula of County Down where our Scots-Irish ancestors once lived; and on yet another day the embattled Belfast neighborhoods with the British Army patrolling the streets.
And they showed us Holywood. A church was built way back in the 6th century in the middle of what is now Holywood. In the 12th century the Normans took over the area and built a monastery over where the church used to be. And nearby they built a castle on a motte. The castle is long gone. Only the motte still exists.
Here’s another tidbit about Holywood and its history: King John of Magna Carta fame visited Holywood’s castle and priory in the year 1210.
King Henry VIII dissolved the priory in 1543 and the walls soon crumbled into ruins. It’s now the town cemetery, one section for the Protestants, one for the Catholics. Henry’s parents and grandparents are buried in this cemetery.
Holywood is known for its May Day celebrations around the old Maypole in the center of town. Alas, a storm knocked the pole down in February of 2021.
The Maypole Bar across the street is still there, however. It’s also known as Ned’s and Carty’s and E. Carty & Sons. We stopped by one night for a few pints of the black stuff and joined a merry crowd. Ned’s son Brian was running the bar that night. At eleven o’clock Brian rang a bell and yelled out “Have you no homes to go to?” It’s a tradition that has been going on for decades.
Our visit in 2009
We flew to Dublin again in 2009 and stayed in Sutton for a couple of days. Then Henry and Geraldine drove down and picked us up and drove back to Holywood. We stayed at the Culloden in nearby Cultra in 2002. And we stayed there again on our second visit to Northern Ireland.
And we visited stores and restaurants. And we visited St Colmcille’s, their parish church.
Henry and Geraldine invited us to attend a Mother’s Day Dinner at Holywood Golf Club. We met some of Geraldine’s family in 2002 and others for the first time at this dinner.
Our visit in 2019
Our third trip to Ireland occurred in 2019. This time we spent a week in Belfast with our younger daughter and her family. Geraldine and Jude, wife of Henry’s nephew David, led us on another trip to the Antrim coast and The Giants Causeway and on the next day we attended our first Irish wedding when Henry’s son Paul married his Amy in Ballynahinch. We also went on a Game of Thrones tour around County Down and visited various fine Belfast establishments including the Titanic and Ulster museums.
For our last day in Northern Ireland Henry arranged a family dinner at the Holywood Golf Club, Rory McIlroy’s home course. 20 people showed up to bid us farewell, including the bride and groom.
Last year Holywood was officially named the best place to live in Northern Ireland. I hear they won this award because of their beach, their stores, their schools, their restaurants, their art galleries.
But I also think they won because the people are just so darn nice!
There are Catholic towns in Northern Ireland and there are Protestant towns. Holywood is mixed. There was a lot of tension in the air when we first visited during the waning days of the Troubles. But it seems that in the last twenty years the people of Holywood have learned how to get along. And they seem to be prosperous.
And they seem to be happy, even though there is only one “l” in Holywood! Or maybe it’s because they have only one “l!”
Sam Millichap started this Favorite Destinations challenge and she just published her final Z story. Adrienne Beaumont just finished her U story. Check out the following writers to see what letter they are on: Michael Rhodes, Anne Bonfert, Jillian Amatt - Artistic Voyages, Darren Weir, Nishan Fuard, Dan Carlson | Meandering Naturists, Robert G. Longpré - [he/him] - Canadian métis, and Ronald Smit.
