Travel to Northern Ireland

[Ken Parris]

This weekend we are traveling to Northern Ireland for a week vacation. We will be staying in the Larne area, does anyone have any advice of interesting woodworking things to do in the area. Thanks in advance.

Ken

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Ken,

I have turning friends in Ireland but none in Northern Ireland. You might find the Titanic Museum in Belfast interesting. You can actually see a couple of the original cranes used to construct the Titanic. Across the parking lot there, to the left of the museum, you can see a hangar-like building that is the studio where "Game of Thrones" was produced.

Have fun! We enjoyed Ireland, and Northern Ireland. The people were extremely appreciative that tourists were spending their money there. The locals never hesitated to explain how important the tourism dollars were to their economy.

[David Bassett]

... We will be staying in the Larne area, does anyone have any advice of interesting woodworking things to do in the area....

We were on a packaged tour of Ireland this summer. It wasn't woodworking focused and we were in a big group. (We stayed in Ballygalley and followed the coast to Belfast, so we had to have gone thru Larne area, but didn't notice it specifically.)

Lots of GoT themed attractions up there. One, marginally woodworking related, is carved pub doors (made from a famous tree by local craftsman) are scattered thru the area. You can get a "passport", search for them, and collect stamps. (My wife & nephew are huge GoT fans and got competitive.) Each door commemorates a significant event in the series. The couple I saw were very impressive, but it's more a treasure hunt than a woodworking experience.

Also, there will be official studio tours eventually, but not yet. There was a traveling GoT exhibit open in Belfast that got great reviews from the fans on our trip, but it may have closed/moved on by now. In Belfast, they have also have GoT stain glass displays scattered around town. From a distance they look like any other advertising / information display, so you need to look sharp, or get a map, but they are lovely and free.

There are also packaged day-tours of GoT sites offered from Belfast. They'll get you to famous scenic sites, (e.g. Giants Causeway), but with the tie-in and description of how the scene was used in the show. (We chose, and can recommend, McComb's Coach Tours, they seemed to get the best reviews, but we noticed dozens of other options on the road and at sites.)

The Titanic museum, (Titanic Experience?), got rave reviews from my BIL, but we were pressed for time and he's the only one in our group that went.

[Matt Lau]

If you like guitars at all, you should visit George Lowden's workshop.
He's highly regarded in the guitar building community, and very different from the usual Martin/Gibson style builder.

https://www.gryphonstrings.com/lowden-guitars-visit/

[David Bassett]

If you like guitars at all, you should visit George Lowden's workshop.
He's highly regarded in the guitar building community, and very different from the usual Martin/Gibson style builder.

https://www.gryphonstrings.com/lowden-guitars-visit/

Sounds like an incredible place, but don't rely on that link for visit info. First, that was a business trip and the Lowden website says, "Tours at Lowden are only by pre-appointment on a Friday afternoon and are usually scheduled weeks in advance. Our small workshops can only handle a few folks at a time, so do call us well in advance to arrange a tour." (Also, that article says the workshop is north of Belfast. Google maps shows it almost due south, the opposite direction of Larne.)