Balrothery Church of Ireland Church, Balrothery, Fingal Ireland

Former detached Church of Ireland church, c.1810. Three-bays to side elevations with a single-bay lean-to entrance porch to north and single-bay linking bay to west. Single-bay three-stage c.1500 tower attached to west, with circular stair tower to north-west corner. Graveyard to site with various cut stone grave markers. ROOF: Double pitched; slate; terracotta ridge tiles; limestone coping to gables; cast-iron & plastic rainwater goods; single pitched slate porch roof. WALLS: Rubble limestone; rough cast rendered; limestone plinth; coarsed rubble limestone to tower. OPENINGS: Gothic arched windows to one side only; limestone hood moulding; canted limestone cills; leaded diamond pattern casements; tracery to rear gable window opening; gothic arched door; limestone surround steps and hood moulding; timber tongue and groove door; bipartite lancet windows to tower; limestone surrounds; partially remaining diamond window panes within.

Balbriggan my new living place - beach, sea, nature and castles

Balbriggan (/ˌbælˈbrɪ.ɡən/; Irish: Baile Brigín) is a large town in the northern part of Fingal, Ireland. The 2011 census population was 19,960 for Balbriggan and its environs.

An 18th-century traveller described Balbriggan as "... a small village situated in a small glin [glen] where the sea forms a little harbour – it is reckoned safe and is sheltered by a good pier. The village is resorted to in Summer time by several genteel people for the benefit of bathing."

Balbriggan owes its rise from a small fishing village to a place of manufacturing and commercial importance to Baron Hamilton, who, in 1780, introduced cotton manufacture, for which he erected factories.

Lewis's Topographical Directory of Ireland, from 1837, refers to Balbriggan as follows:

A sea-port, market, and post-village, and a chapelry, in the parish and barony of Balrothery, county of Dublin, and province of Leinster, 15 miles (N. by E.) from Dublin; containing 3016 inhabitants.

 Balbriggan is 32 km north of Dublin city, on the Belfast–Dublin main line of the Irish rail network.

The River Bracken, also known as the Matt River, which flows through the town, once formed a lake known locally at "The Canal" or "Head"(of water). The water was sluiced through a canal and tunnels down to the Lower Mill where it turned a waterwheel to drive the cotton manufacturing machinery. The retaining wall of the reservoir collapsed in the 1960s and the area was reclaimed through land-fill in the early 1980s to create a public park.

The town is coastal and has a famous sandy beach. It was a holiday destination for people from Dublin city and is the location of a Sunshine Home which aims to provide a holiday to underprivileged children from Dublin.The Sunshine Fund is a unique branch of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul which provides week-long Summer holidays for children, aged 7 to 11, from disadvantaged parts of Dublin, Meath, Wicklow and Kildare.

 

 

Promenade & Beach, Baltic Coast, Ustka in Poland

Situated on the Baltic Sea, the town of Ustka is one of Poland’s best known bathing resorts. Year in year out, the town becomes increasingly more popular with tourists both from Poland and from abroad, with thousands visiting every year. It should come as no surprise then that over the past few years the town has won a string of prestigious local awards for the best summer resort in the country.

 The town boasts two beautiful beaches divided by the river Slupia. Being situated closer to the centre, the eastern beach enjoys far greater popularity among visitors than the western beach, which leads into the Navy Training Centre. Much more developed and surrounded by bars, restaurants, a concert hall, and the 19th century waterfront promenade, Ustka’s eastern beach has also been a cause of considerable expense for the town authorities as the beach is being gradually worn away 

by the sea.
  Interesting thing to see is the unfinished pier, the construction of which was started by the Germans at the beginning of World War II, a fact which attracts legends and myths related to Nazi Germany. Worthy of a visit is the lighthouse from 1871, the Main Post Office from 1875, and a church from 1882, while an unmissable event is the International Contest of Fireworks organised annually in July.