All language subtitles for Adrian.Dunbars.My.Ireland.S01E01.1080p.HDTV.H264-DARKFLiX

The island of Ireland.

No matter where I am in the world,

I always look forward to coming
home.

Want to take you with me
to some of my favourite places.

I'll share my passion for food...

That's a beautiful dish.
Thank you.

Maybe even a bit of creme fraiche.
Creme fraiche.

Going too far, come on.

...history...

It never ceases to amaze me
this monument.

How did they dream up these things?
Yeah.

...and scenery.

This really must be one of the most
incredible views of any form

of garden anywhere.

I'll take you behind the scenes
of where I grew up...

Thank you very much, boys!

...and reveal a few secrets
along the way.

You and a mate and a couple
of girls,

that was a tester then, you know!
It was!

As well as old favourites,

we'll go to places I've always
wanted to see.

Come with me,

I'm Adrian Dunbar,

and this is My Ireland.

I was born in Enniskillen,
in Northern Ireland.

Then, at the age of 20, I went
to acting school in London.

Now, I split my time between the
fast-paced life the Big Smoke

and the calmer serenity
of the Emerald Isle.

And there's nothing I like
more than returning home.

Great,
we're back on the road again.

I'm very excited about some
of the people are going

to meet this time.

Our journey will cover nearly 600
miles, starting in the rugged

northwest, passing through County
Fermanagh in Northern Ireland,

where I grew up, into Ireland's
hidden heartlands

and onto the tranquillity
of Ireland's ancient east,

where we'll end in Hook Head
in County Wexford.

Our first stop is a place
that I've always had a strong

connection to, a Slieve League
on the Wild Atlantic Way

in County Donegal.

Standing over 600 metres above the
unforgiving Atlantic Ocean,

these are the highest accessible
sea cliffs in Europe.

They're nearly three times higher
than Ireland's famous Cliffs

of Moher and twice the height
of the Eiffel Tower.

Wind and rain are common
on the west of Ireland.

But, whatever the weather, I'll
never tire of looking out

at this endless expanse of ocean.

I've been coming here for years
and years.

Brought my family here when
they were small, the kids.

It holds many, many happy
memories for me.

And also some sad ones.

A great friend of mine,
john Keegan, a wonderful actor, got

out of Belfast in the early
'70s and came all the way

to the West Coast and took
a photograph of himself standing

here looking out across the cliffs.

And then many years later,
when he was very ill,

a bunch of us got together
and we came back because he wanted

to replicate that photograph.

And this is the four of us Alan,
myself, Patsy and john on the end.

It was a sad trip,

but john reminded us that Slieve
League is a place of arrival.

It's also a place of departure.

It's an important place for me
and I'm keen to learn more about it.

Hi, Cormac. Hi, Adrian.
Welcome back to Slieve League.

Yeah, thanks a lot. Good to see you.
Yeah, it's great to be here,

great to be here and get wee look
around. Yeah.

Let's go and have a peek.
Sound.

Cormac McGinley is an expert
on these parts.

He set up his own walking tour
business four years ago.

We'll you just head up here,
this would be one

of the steeper cliffs we can get a
look out of

and give you a decent a decent
vantage point out

over the rest of it.
Yeah, cool.

Cormac's tours showcase many parts
of Ireland's magnificent coastline.

But, with the dramatic scenery,
it's here in Slieve League

where the walks are said
to be some of the best.

So, yeah, these were forced up about
400 million years ago.

You had a tectonic impact, where two
plates came together. Right.

Ancl shoved all these sandstone
layers up into these mountains.

Ancl at the time, the Atlantic
didn't exist,

we were connected to America,

so this was part of the
Appalachian Mountain chain.

Wow. It was pushed up,
it actually runs into Scotland.

Ancl as the Atlantic formed, that we
were kind of parted from each other.

Yes. So it's been recognised
as the International Appalachian

Trail in recent years, the trail
to actually connect them,

for somebody who's keen
on a big walk!

That is a big one.
It's a big one. Yeah. Yeah.

OK.

Ah!

Hello! How's it going?

Aw, you're wondering what's
happening.

So, Cormac, you grew up in this
area,

and you're lucky enough to be
able to stay here,

to work here,
how did all that come about?

Well, I grew up actually in one of the last
houses on the way up the road here. Right.

So this was kind of our back yard,
like this is where we walk the clogs

and I my father fished
from the harbour

there and he was a fisherman.
Right.

So we spent all their time here.

But, as a kid, I enjoy, I loved it,

I probably didn't appreciate
it for what an amazing place it was.

I know.

For over 1,000 years, the cliffs
have been a place

of sacred Christian pilgrimage.

The remnants and relics offer
a glimpse into the lives

of those from ancient times gone by.

And what's the first sign
of habitation around here,

I mean is it the Megalithic Period?

Well, in this area, yeah, there's
evidence that was back

10,500 years.
Wow!

And, more recently, there's
been DNA evidence that suggests

there might have been people
here 33,000 years ago.

Wow! Which puts them in the Ice Age.
Right.

Ancl if they were here, they may
have been something like this,

Sami people like in Norway.

Seasonal reindeer hunters
and herders.

Wow, so this is the result of a lot
of glacial activity, obviously,

all down through here.

These have been a mountain
range for a long time,

but, as sea cliffs, it's a much
more recent thing.

I would estimate that none
of the cliff faces here are older

than 5,000 to 7,000 years old.
OK.

They kind of give a false sense of
permanence because of the scale.

The scale, yeah. People think
they've been here forever.

Yeah. But anybody who's been fishing
under them for years, or working

on them, gets to see big chunks fall
off every now and then

and get reminded.

Get reminded that it's still...
A work in progress.

...a work in progress. Yeah.

Well, I've been here loads of times
over the years, you know.

I saw you years ago all right, when
I was a kid, yeah,

I must've been 19,
I remember seeing you in a bar.

In a bar?
Of course!

Who was I with?
You were with Neil Morrissey,

he was in Men Behaving Badly
at the time. Right, OK.

And was he behaving badly?

No, we were behaving badly,

we were giggling in the corner,
thinking of saying something

to yous, but sure we didn't have
the nerve!

Right, OK.

While Cormac spends his days on top
of the cliffs,

his brother Micheal
makes his living beneath them.

Micheal is a lobster
fisherman who goes out every morning

to tend his pots.

Nice to meet you. How's it going,
brother, all right?

Yeah, nice to see you.

He's invited me to join him
and choose a lobster for lunch.

So we're heading to the relatively
calm waters of the bay,

where Micheal keeps a stash of
previously caught lobsters.

This is just keeping these guys
fresh? This is keeping them alive.

So, like, I cook them up fresh
every clay, so I'll come down here

and I'll take five or six,
whatever, for the clay.

Yeah. Cook them up, take them
up, sell out,

and then I get to go
home and enjoy the rest.

Right, that sounds good to me.

Usually it takes about seven years
for them to get to size.

Seven years? Seven years to the
size. They live in hard ground,

they like rocky ground.

Where I catch them mainly is as
close to the cliff edge

is the best ground
around here to catch them.

It's also more dangerous
ground to be fishing them.

Yeah. You know, cos
you're so close to the edge.

Well, I do like a bit of lobster
myself.

You can pick out whatever
one you want. Right.

It's tricky, isn't it?
There's a boy there, look.

Aye, it's enough for a sandwich anyway.
Enough for a sandwich? Aye, definitely.

Right, OK, that'll do that then.

Right. Easy!

MICHEAL LAUGHS

Michael is following
in the footsteps of many before him,

as lobster fisheries are one
of the most traditional amongst

Irish coastal communities.

He dishes up his lobster rolls
from his tiny food truck

that sits on top of the cliff.

Oh, that looks good.

There you go.

Wow, man! Wow, wow, wow, wow!

Lemon, the whole lot.

Gosh, this looks fantastic, boys.

Oh, yeah.

See what you think.

Mm! That's so good!

Roughing it again, boys, you've some
rough life too, haven't you?

But somebody has to struggle
through, you know?

Well, I'll struggle with you, I'll
tell you that!

Any brown sauce?

I'll hold you back!
I am joking, of course.

It's been one hell of a day, boys.

Thanks very much. I'll tell you,

plenty of fresh air,
we'll sleep tonight!

Next, after years of wanting to go,

I finally get to the enchanting
gardens of Glenveagh Castle.

You come into it and you know
you've arrived somewhere really special.

And to a top restaurant,
where I help make a local dish

with one of Ireland's most
well-loved chefs.

It's a very Irish looking
dish, isn't it?

We wanted you to feel at home.
Yeah, yeah.

I'm Adrian Dunbar, and I'm excited
to be taking you to places

I've always wanted to get to,
but never quite found the time.

We're on our way to Glenveagh
National Park in County Donegal, way

up in the North, which was gifted
many years ago to the Irish state.

Many, many famous people
were there in the past, including

Greta Garbo, who famously
said, "I want to be alone".

Well, if you want to be alone,

this is probably one of the places
to do it.

Glenveagh is in the heart
of the Derryveagh Mountains

in the northwest of Donegal.

At nearly 42,000 acres,

it's the second largest National
Park in Ireland

and it's spectacular.

A remote wilderness of enchanting
landscape.

On the shores of Lake Veagh
is the star of the show,

the hauntingly beautiful
Glenveagh Castle.

Built as a hunting lodge,

its remote mountain setting
was inspired by the Victorian idyll

of a romantic Highland retreat.

It was the vision of john George
Adair, a wealthy Irish land

speculator, who completed
the building in 1867.

Surrounding the castle are 27 acres

of captivating gardens and walks.

Welcome to Glenveagh.

Hi, Sean.

Wow!
It's quite extraordinary.

Yeah. it really is.
Yeah.

You come into it and you know you've
arrived somewhere really special, don't you?

I have a keen interest in gardens
myself and I like to spend as much

time as I can in my own in London.

Coming here is something I've wanted
to do for many years

and getting a private tour with the
head gardener Sean,

well, it's a real treat.

We have 1,700 different kinds
of plants in the garden.

Wow! That's just the diversity.

Ancl then there's, in some cases,
hundreds of the same variety.

The Gardens were first designed
by john Adair's wife, Cornelia,

a wealthy American heiress.

She developed Glenveagh.

Really the entire cultural imprints
that we have here

is Mrs Adair,
this American woman.

The layout has been designed
for each area to flow into the next.

So this is the pleasure grounds.
Oh, this is beautiful.

So this is actually reclaimed bog.

Huge amounts of topsoil
were brought in here to make

this garden for Mrs Adair.

So this was where the guests would
come down into the lawn to play

croquet on the lawn and enjoy
the outdoor air.

Over the years, the estate passed
through different owners.

The last was Henry McElhinny, who
bought Glenveagh in 1937.

He's responsible for much
of what we see today.

Henry McElhinny brought another
layer of decorative arts

to Glenveagh.

There's 250 items of ornamentation
in the garden.

So, the whole thing is the result of

a huge amount of intellectual
gardening

consciousness that all comes
together over many, many years.

Yeah. And to leave us with what
we have now?

The layers of history that make it
so nice, yeah.

Mm. Yeah.

What vision these early
designers had.

As well as the pleasure grounds,

there's a walled garden,

an Italian terrace
and a Belgian walk.

So Mrs Adair made the castle
available to the British War Office

in 1915, and about 60 Belgian
soldiers were sent

here to convalesce.
Right.

With injuries
from the First World War.

Ancl so, while they were here,
they helped the gardener to make

this path we're walking on.

So that's how it got the name
the Belgian Walk.

Nice. Ancl it's wonderful, because
the path follows the slope

through the native woodland.

Yeah. So we have this fantastic
native oak canopy above us.

At over 200 acres,

it's one of the biggest
patches of oak woodland

in the whole of Ireland.

Every part of these gardens
has been thoughtfully designed

and Sean has created his own
addition

to add to the layers of
history.

I actually designed that... Did
you? Yeah, and had it built.

The inspiration for this came
from Highgrove,

Prince Charles's
garden in England.

He has one of these wooden
built temples.

Ancl then we took the Greek
proportions, one and seven,

so there's a perfect square
in the design.

So, then when you're in a two,
you kind of feel the sense of...

Yeah. ..this is kind of to scale,
it fits. It is, it fits.

So it sits very nicely
in the pleasure grounds.

Well, you know, as a gardener here,
you must feel connected

to history in some very, very
tangible way?

You're talking about we're standing
on the shoulders of all

the gardeners who worked here for
the last hundred years, too.

So you're looking at the work
of many hands,

and we're the current hands.
Yes.

Yeah, so we're keepers. Keepers,
yeah, we have the use of it.

We're just the keepers.
We just have the use of it. Yeah.

Beautiful.

What a privilege to see
the gardens through the eyes

of someone so passionate.

After all that exploring,
I'm ready for a bite to eat.

Around 80 miles away is
a restaurant I've wanted to visit

for many, many years.

Blacklion is a tiny rural
village in County Cavan.

It may not be as well known
as other places in Ireland,

but its popularity is rising.

Part of this is thanks to one
of Ireland's most famous

and best-loved chefs.

Here he is, the man of the moment!

You're welcome to Blacklion.
Thank you.

Come on into the school.
It's about time we met, I think.

We'll do a bit of cooking first.
Fantastic, yeah.

So this is our school here.

Beautiful.
Ancl I have an apron for you.

Oh, right, OK.

We're going to get you suited
and booted.

Chef Neven Maguire has published 12
cookbooks and his award-winning

MacNean House and Restaurant
has firmly placed the tiny village

of Blacklion on the culinary map.

There's a long waiting list
to get a table.

I've heard so much about you,
Neven

My mother was the first person
to tell me, "Your fella Neven,

"he's cooking such great grub
down there," you know?

At the core of Neven's philosophy
is a commitment to using only

the finest local seasonal
ingredients,

so I know I'm in for a treat.

We're going to cook a bit of duck? We are,
we're going to cook some local cluck, Adrian.

So now you're going to be my
assistant? I see, yeah!

You look well, I have to say.

Well, you know, I'll try me best not
to cut me hands off! OK.

Might have to put me glasses on. If
you want to, that's fine.

What we're going to do, I'm going to
get you to do a little bit of chopping.

This is a celeriac, so this is a
beautiful root vegetable.

But what we're going to do
is just peel it.

I'm going to get you to cut
into small, little cubes.

I'm so impressed
with what you've achieved here.

I mean, a lot of people who reach
your standard of cuisine,

you know, would go elsewhere
and do their stuff,

but you've stayed
here and you've developed

the business here and you source
locally.

You know, I'm so proud of
where I come from.

Mum and Dad started here 33
years ago.

We have 60 people employed
in the small little village,

we have a full time gardener here,

so it's about local and changing
the menu with the seasons,

I think that's important.

We have a huge opportunity
here in this island with food,

food, for me, is the future
of this island.

How are you getting on? OK?
Well, you know...

You're a natural, come on!
We're having a go.

Do you like cooking yourself?
I love cooking, yeah.

Do you like duck?
I love duck. Thank God.

I love duck, I love duck.

Your mother was a great cook?

My mother was a great cook, she cooked
in the council up in Enniskillen. OK.

She was a great baker, she was
always on the scone, treacle bread,

wheaten bread,
she was great at all that.

You start learning a few things.
And you're like me,

you're from a big family.
Yeah, that's right.

How many's in your family?
There's actually nine.

Five boys and four girls. Wow!
Yeah.

You need to have your home economics
worked out to do that stuff.

Definitely, definitely.
Yeah.

It's a very Irish looking-dish,
isn't it? Yes.

We were thinking of you.
You know what I'm saying?

We wanted you to feel at home!
Aye!

After a few years, sometimes you
stand back and you look around

and you think, "Oh, my God,

"I was actually thinking about this
when I was ten years old."

And suddenly I didn't know
that that dream

that I had when I was ten
was the thing that was driving me

the whole time - do you get
that feeling sometimes?

You know, I often think and I think
of my parents, my mum and clad,

where I got the love of food.

You know, I remember cooking
for seven people in the restaurant

and we struggled, we genuinely found
it very difficult to pay our bills.

So we were very lucky that we stuck
it out, I believed we could make

it work on Blacklion,
but it's about a great team.

I do know chefs are driven people,
but I'm just thinking to myself,

what would be the next step for you?

Do you know what, Adrian, I'm 48 and
I'm content, I have two lovely kids,

my wife, Imelda, we have a very
"consistent" business,

I love that word,
so we're just enjoying it.

Ancl I think you can only take one
clay, one week at a time.

I have no ambition to own other
restaurants, I'm so happy,

we love doing it,
it's great fun.

Ancl this is a three-year-old
balsamic, so I'll put a good slug.

Ancl the older gets, it's even
sweeter, so it is.

So we need to just taste that,
that's looking really good.

I wish that was the same with
people!

NEVEN LAUGHS

You know, I've got very ratty as
I've got older, you know what I mean?

Oh, that's brilliant! You know,
grumpy old men and all that stuff.

So we're going to serve this up. So,
Adrian, with this, we're going to do

a little bit of a sweet potato
fondant. OK.

So a nice little kind of like pipe
of this.

So if you just put the cabbage
anywhere there, perfect. OK.

So we'll just slice this nice
and thin

so it's nice and pink, but not
too rare.

So what do you think? Four slices?
Would you be happy with that?

I'd be very happy.
Would you be happy with that one?

Just arrange that. That's fantastic.
So lovely.

Ancl then our sauce.
Ancl that's it.

Voila!

Is it tender? Mm!

Happy? It's really, really
delicious. Good.

That is so succulent, that piece
of duck. They're great.

It takes to that sauce very,
very well.

Yeah. Tasty?
That's a beautiful dish.

Thank you. Thanks, Neven.
You're a gentleman, Adrian,

great to have you,
thank you.

Next, I'll share some childhood
memories,

as I head back
to where I grew up...

My father was the foreman
on that bridge. He was indeed.

The connections are huge
here for me and the family.

...and good times with old friends,

as we rediscover some lost Irish
tunes.

It was a real surprise,

some of the tunes had never
been heard before.

I'm Adrian Dunbar, and, although it
may not look like it,

I'm crossing a border,

from the Republic of Ireland,
into Northern Ireland.

We're on our way
to County Fermanagh - my county -

and the town of Enniskillen,
where I was born.

A beautiful island town
between two massive lakes.

So I'm hoping we're going
to get out on the lakes.

We're going to see Devenish Island,
the spiritual heart of the county -

a place I've been
many, many times before, of course.

And I'm going to meet an old friend
of mine, Frankie Roof e,

who's going to take us
round the town.

Whenever I'm back in Fermanagh,
I truly feel at home.

And, of course,
it's the landscape that does it.

En route, we'll pass Cuilcagh.

With its various surroundings,
it's a miracle of nature.

From limestone that was formed

by the crushed remains of tiny
sea creatures millions of years ago,

when this land was the bottom
of a tropical ocean,

to one of the largest expanses
of blanket bog in Northern Ireland.

A wooden boardwalk - or
Stairway to Heaven, as it's known -

is a climb of 450 steps
leading to magnificent views.

Just 20 minutes from here,

the lush, green landscape
changes into a water wonderland.

Nice to be home.

It may not have a coastline,

but one third of Fermanagh
is covered by rivers,

weaving waterways,

and two lakes -
Lower and Upper Lough Erne.

Combined, they stretch out
for over 60km.

And in the middle of it all
is Enniskillen,

Ireland's only island town
and the place where I grew up.

I'm really proud to show you around,

and the best way to see it
is by boat.

Hello, Frankie. Hello, Adie.
Good to see you. Good to see you.

Yeah.

Here we go. Here we go.
Let's go down the lake here.

Let's go down the Lough here.

Frankie Roof e is a local historian
and genealogist,

and he's also
an old friend of mine.

Wee drop of rain in the area, Adie.
Aye, yeah.

Wouldn't be the same
without a drop of rain.

We both grew up here,
and it brings back many memories.

So, I mean, all this area here

is just the playground
of my childhood. Yes.

I remember a kind of...
..picnics. ..picnics.

Sunday afternoon. Sunday afternoon.

I remember one time I'd three apples
in a bag that we bought up...

And there used to be a shop
called The Garden. The Garden, yeah.

I tripped on the way down there
and the apples fell into the Lough

and I cut all my knees
and I was crying.

And...Nurse Rooney? Yes. A legend.

A legend of a midwife,

who would have delivered
loads and loads of children,

heard it, and she threw
a kind of sponge over the wall

to kind of, you know... Yeah.

...clean my knees up
and stuff like that. Yeah.

So all those memories, you know,
are of this...this area here.

My mother's family
first arrived here in the 1870s,

when my great-grandfather was RSM
in the Royal Enniskillen Fusiliers.

Just over 100 years later,

my father was involved with
the rebuilding of the Castle Bridge.

My father was the foreman
on that bridge. He was indeed.

He worked in all the bridges
in Fermanagh.

He was great at shutter joinery,

which is kind of building shapes
for concrete.

The connections are... Yeah. ..are
huge here for me and the family.

# But friends and companions

# I'll take you with me

# Down memory's lane

# Ancl I hope you'll agree

# God's gift to old Ireland

# Ancl its towns in between

# On the banks of Lough Erne

# Ancl her island so green... #

We are now making our way
to Devenish Island,

a place I visited many times -

a place for many
to reflect and recharge.

# Oh, Devenish, in dreams

# You look so serene

# With your lofty round tower

# Ancl bells that have a ring

# Your walls may be silent

# But to me, you're the queen

# Of lovely Lough Erne

# Ancl her island so green... #

It's some bit of water.

There's more water here in the lake
than there is in the Norfolk Broads

and the Lake District
and everything put together.

It's a beautiful place.
A fantastic place.

We would have went down as children.
Yeah.

You know, you and a mate
and a couple of girls,

and everything would be great,
you'd have a great day out.

Then you'd have to row
against the flow...

...back home. ..on the way back.

Rowing against the flow -
that was the big thing.

That was the tester. That was
the tester. Definitely was, yeah.

# Oh, Devenish, in dreams

# You look so serene

# With your lofty round tower

# Ancl bells that have a ring... #

Breaking the skyline behind me,

you can see the Round Tower
of Devenish,

a very famous spot,
with the abbey below it.

Really the spiritual heart
of the county, in my opinion.

It's a beautiful place.

# Many years from this county,
Fermanagh, I've been

# Next summer, please God,
I'll go back there again

# Where they're cutting their corn

# Ancl the meadows do gleam

# Round the banks of Lough Erne

# Ancl her island so green. #

So, Frankie, here we are.

We find ourselves in this
incredible sixth-century abbey

of St Molaise here
on Devenish Island. Yeah.

And the spiritual centre
of Fermanagh, really.

It's on all our crests
and all our badges and everything.

I mean, this is the closest
monastic island... Yeah.

...to the town of Enniskillen.

Devenish is one of
a chain of island monasteries

stretched across the lakes.

It was a place of worship,
scholarship and burial.

People lived, worked
and prayed here,

and pilgrims were always welcomed.

Monasteries were like
little villages.

Everything was built by the monks

and those who followed them
onto the island.

There's no quarry on the island.

All of the stonework
that you see here... All this here.

...was brought here... ..to build
all this. ..to build all this.

These monks were stonemasons.

That was all the trades
and occupations that they had.

But the ordinary people
from the area

were the ones that brought
the stone to the island.

So then they would
have had a massive farm. Correct.

They would have fisheries here.
Correct.

They would have been breeding trout.
Correct.

They would have been
catching salmon.

They had whatever was needed
to create a system

and a living quarters
on this island.

Devenish was one of Ireland's
most important monasteries

and remained so
for over 1,000 years.

But life wasn't always calm.

But then, of course, our old
friends, the Vikings, arrived. Yes.

And when the Vikings arrived,

they started coming up
the river systems.

And the first thing they would
go for are these monasteries,

because, of course, they knew...

Gold, silver.
..there was gold, silver.

It was very seldom that
they were beaten. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They were vicious.
They were pretty scary boys.

Correct. Very, very vicious.

The Vikings attacked Devenish

in both the eighth
and ninth centuries.

But others continue to raid
long after the Vikings had gone.

And, in the 12th century,
this Round Tower was built

to keep the monastic treasures safe
in time of troubles.

It survived, whilst many
of the surrounding churches

were burnt to the ground
by attackers.

The monks and islanders would have
run to the safety of the tower

and pulled up a ladder
to the doorway,

two and a half metres
above the ground,

thus ensuring access was extremely
difficult for any invader.

20 metres further up were the bells
that could sound the alarm.

BELL RINGS

Well, that's impressive, isn't it?
Yeah.

And so they would have taken
all their possessions...?

They would have had their gold
and their silver and...

Yeah, their chalices... Yes.
..and all that.

And they would have taken
them up into the tower. Yes.

Ancl there's a well in there
for water.

They would have had a storage place
to keep their stuff in,

the foodstuff that would
have been preserved as well,

so that they could last...
outlast the Vikings.

But they would have spotted them

because there's four windows
up here, isn't there?

Yeah, right at the top.
At the cardinal point. Yeah.

So that they would have seen
right down the lake.

Yeah, right down past the end
of the island. Yeah.

And all the way up,
practically all the way up there,

towards the town as well.
On a good, clear clay. Wow.

Which we didn't get today!
Right, Frankie, let's go.

COWS MOO

The wind is picking up.
There's no doubt about it, Frankie.

I think we'd better
get back to the boat. Yeah.

As the wind gathers pace,

I'm off to take cover
in my favourite pub,

which is just a short hop from here,
in the centre of Enniskillen.

If I'm going to have a drink,

there's only one place
I'm going to go,

and that's Blakes of the Hollow.

And it just so happens
that three good friends of mine

are going to be there,
playing a few tunes.

So we'll go and see
if we can get a pint off them.

TRADITIONAL IRISH MUSIC PLAYS

Blakes of the Hollow
is one of Ireland's

most well-known Victorian pubs.

For over 125 years,

traditional Irish hospitality
has been at its very core.

I've been coming here since
I was old enough to have a pint.

And meeting up with my old friends,
Gabriel, Pat andjim,

is something
I always look forward to.

Irish music is deep-rooted
in all of them.

That is absolutely marvellous.
Thank you very much.

Boys, sound as a pound.

Well, I mean, I can't get more home
than where I am right now

in Blakes of the Hollow,
but I'm very delighted, actually,

to be here with
three excellent musicians,

great men from about the county.

There's jim McGrath,
Gabriel McArdle here,

with Pat McManus,
who comes from a family

that's steeped in the Irish music
tradition here in the county.

I, in many respects was very lucky,
you know, because my clad

and the tradition of the music were
going back for many generations.

In fact, back to that book -
the john Gunn Book, it was known as.

The Gunn Book, of course,
is a very famous book of tunes

that were kept...
You know, Fermanagh tunes.

And of course, Pat, your...

you know, your ancestry is
all hooked into that, isn't it?

Yes, yeah.

In around 1850,
Pat's great-great-grandfather

was undoubtedly one of the best
musicians in the county.

He wrote down almost 200 tunes

in what became known
as the john Gunn Book.

It was lost from the family
for many years,

but recently Pat received a call

to say the book will
soon be returned home to him.

It had been on one of the islands.
Right.

A custodian had it there,
was keeping it there,

but it rightly belonged, I suppose,
to the...

...to our side of the family,
you know? Yes, yes.

So there was great tunes in there,

and Fermanagh tunes
in particular, you know? Yeah.

My father knew a lot of the tunes,

but he didn't know all of them
that were in there.

So it was...it was quite a rarity

because, in Ireland, I think
there was only one other book,

O'Neill's Book, which is a very
famous collection of various tunes.

So people were really surprised

when we actually
got to look at the book

and see the tunes
and hear some of the tunes

that had never been heard before.
Wow. So...

It's an incredible story,

and Pat, Gabriel andjim are still
playing tunes from this book today.

Through them, the songs
and the tunes will be kept alive

for generations to come.

Sound. Thanks very much, boys.

Gaby, you never lost it. Thank you.
THEY LAUGH

Good man. Thanks,jim.
Thank you very much.

Have a drink anyway, boys.

You know
it financed the whole craic.

THEY LAUGH

Next, after eating world-famous
Carlingford oysters

for many years...

My God, that's good, isn't it?

...I'm put to work on the farm.

It's a young man's game,
doing that job.

Yes, a young man's game is right.

I'm Adrian Dunbar,

and we're nearing the end of
this part of our Irish road trip.

So far, I've shared
many childhood memories.

And on my way to Carlingford, our
last stop, I want to share one more.

En route is the city of Armagh,

and I just couldn't drive past
without dropping in

to one of my favourite places
that I went to as a child,

and it might just surprise you.

Built in 1968,

this is the longest-running
planetarium in the British Isles.

I can still remember how I felt
sitting here over 50 years ago,

seeing these incredible images

which helped fuel
my love of the stars -

something that has never left me.

Sequence starts.

Six, five, four...

Oh, that's amazing.

...two, one, zero.

Here we go.
All engines running.

Liftoff! We have a liftoff!

Wow, look at that.

It's fantastic.
H E CH UCKLES

It was definitely worth
making this detour.

It's as mesmerising now
as it was all those years ago.

Wow, look at the Moon, man.

It's that whole thing of lying back
and staring off into space.

It was enough to keep you quiet
as a kid, which is something else.

I firmly believe that astronomy
was definitely the first science.

I could get lost in here
for many hours...

Really extraordinary.

...but our last stop is calling.

We've been up the north-west,
the Wild Atlantic Way.

We've come down through Fermanagh
and the Lakes and through Armagh

and crossed over onto
the charming east coast.

Next stop, Carlingford
in Ireland's ancient east.

With history
running through its core,

Carlingford is considered
to be the jewel in the crown

of this ancient landscape.

The ruins of the 13th-century
King John's Castle

keep a watch over the deep-water bay
of Carlingford Lough...

...an inlet that rests
between the Cooley Mountains

and the Mountains of Mourne.

The lough is celebrated not only
for its breathtaking beauty,

but also for its hidden treasures.

Beneath the waters, Carlingford
oysters thrive in their masses.

They're famous all over the world,

and I've been eating them
for many years.

So couldn't resist
an invite to the farm.

So we'll go right out
to the deepest part. OK.

In a few hours it's five metres
of water above you.

Five metres? Five metres.

So we'll be swimming...
Yeah, right. ..in a couple of hours.

If you want to hang around,
you're more than welcome,

but I'm getting out. Yeah, right.

No, that would be quite cold,
I think. Yeah.

Brian McGill has worked here
for over ten years.

There must be miles
of oyster beds here.

It's around 60,000+ bags.
60,000? Yeah.

It you put it line to line,
it's about 32km.

It's quite a lot of bags.
Yeah, yeah.

So how many oysters, then,
do you produce each year?

The target is to go around
two million. Two million? Yeah.

You know, we ship 52 weeks
of the year. Yeah.

So you've got to keep
that constant production.

It's two and a half
to three years to grow one oyster.

And where do you ship to, mostly?

Obviously, Ireland, UK, Asia -
Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand -

Italy... I mean, I've eaten
your oysters, by the way,

all over London... Yeah.
..In all the best restaurants.

It's amazing where our oysters are.

Whether it's in Chiltern Firehouse,
Rick Stein's or the Savoy,

it's kind of mind-blowing.
It's a good feeling for us.

We're all very proud of it here.
Yeah, of course.

Yeah, you should be. Yeah.

Oysters have a long history
in Ireland.

Discarded shell fossils
have been found on Irish beaches

dating back 5,000 years,

and oyster fishing
is documented back to the 1500s.

Now a delicacy,

these ocean gifts were once seen
as the food of the poor,

keeping many starving people alive
during the famine.

That's... You see that one there?

That's...that's the size
of the oyster when they arrive.

That's the size when they arrive.

Ancl there's about 1,000 oysters
in that bag. Wow.

That would be 100 kilos of oysters
when fully grown.

Even there -
that's grown quite a bit.

It would have been
like a teacup full of oysters

that went into that bag. Really?
Earlier on in the spring, yeah. Wow.

And already it's that. Yeah.

Kian is heir to this oyster empire
and works with his father,

Peter Louet-Feisser,
who founded this farm in 1978.

They work hard to ensure
each oyster reaches perfection.

Not easy when you're competing
with the tides.

There's only a window of
around ten hours every two weeks

where you can actually
get to the oyster beds.

Right now,
the conditions are perfect,

so I'm put to work for my lunch.

So lift the bag up.

Pull it towards you. Brilliant.

OK, and then what you want to do
is use your strength -

three shakes on the side.

Ancl you can see all the shells
falling into the sea.

Yes, so that's the new growth?
Yeah, that's all the new growth.

You're just kind of
keeping that in check.

This is just the secret
to growing oysters -

just to turn the bags regularly
and just keep them in check. Yeah.

If you just let them grow ahead
without doing this,

the shape deteriorates.

But if you keep turning them,
you've got a lovely teardrop oyster.

It's nice and deep and there's
plenty of room for the meat inside

and you get that lovely
sweetness and the fatness

in the oyster, and all
the extra flavour. Uh-huh. One more.

Jeez, you'd be tired enough
doing that all day.

It's tough going, like. It's
a young man's game, doing that job.

Yes, a young man's game is right.
Yeah.

OK. You do that one,
I'll do this one. Yeah.

Fabulous.

What I'd really like to do
is maybe try a couple of them.

See what we can do.
Let's see what we can do.

Carlingford oysters' unique flavour
comes from the lough itself.

There's an enormous exchange of
water with each tide

that provides the nutrients
the oysters need to thrive.

Even the same species of oyster
grown in a different bay

will taste different
because they're feeding naturally

from the plankton
that's growing in this bay.

Ancl the different species
of plankton

will be affected by
the nutrients in the water. Uh-huh.

So what we're really
trying to do here

is kind of grow the best oysters
that we can coming from our bay.

So the rounder and deeper
your oysters are,

the more space there is
for the oyster meat inside. Yes.

So it's going to be... So you're
looking for that deep shell. Yeah.

That guy looks great. Yeah.

So the flavour comes from...

See the colour in the gill?
See that white colour?

Yes. That's a reserve. When the
oyster's in really good condition,

that's kind of a reserve
of glycogen and fat,

and it gives it a sweet taste -

the same way as cream has
sweet taste or even a nice steak.

You know, the marbling in
a steak gives... Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's the same,
except it's a fish oil,

so it's actually
very, very good for you. OK.

So, would you like to try that, sir?
I certainly would.

My God, that's good, isn't it?
So there's plenty of flavour.

Like, people used to just swallow
the oysters.

If you've never
eaten an oyster before,

the saltwater
can be a bit overpowering.

So if you sip the water first,

and it gives you a pre-taste
of the oyster.

There's loads of flavour.

It is like taking a mouthful
of the sea...

...but it's really meaty.

There's a lot of meat in it,
you know? Yeah.

It's not... it just doesn't
kind of, you know, disappear. No.

There's a lot to grab hold of
in that oyster.

That's really amazing, yeah. Yeah.

It's mineral water for you.
HE LAUGHS

Yeah.

Cheers, boys.

That works. Oh, this is a great way
to spend your clay.

I'm going to have another one here
because I can't... Yeah.

Next time, we continue our journey
in Ireland's ancient east

to reveal the drama
of Irish pre-history.

Wow! Look at that!

From a megalithic marvel...

So in 5,000 years,
we've lost four minutes,

which, as a time-telling device,
is pretty good.

...to an ancient lighthouse.

What you're looking at, Adrian,
is an 800-year-old,

fully intact medieval lighthouse.
Wow.

An old friend and famous chef
invites me for brunch...

Mmm! That's so good.

...and we'll visit a truly
spectacular country house.

That's just got to be one of
the most beautiful views in Ireland.

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