Visiting The Scullery in Ballyronan

A couple of weekends ago I went on a visit to Northern Ireland along with two of my sisters.  We booked a holiday cottage near our home village of Ballyronan.   Normally we stay with Sylvia who lives in Co Down but this time she joined us to stay locally so we had a bit more time to see relatives and in particular to check out The Scullery, the cafe which has now opened in our old family home.  

My mother Sadie was postmistress in the village for 35 years.  This photograph of her and Jim, my father, was taken in 1998 shortly before she retired. Photo Credit Ardboe Gallery.

This is what the old post office looks like now. 

On Saturday we had lunch in The Scullery with my Aunty Mary. She used to help Mum in the Post Office covering holidays.  We also used to help serve customers with varying degrees of competence.  I wasn't much good, being too absent-minded to remember to tear out the dockets in pension books so the accounts wouldn't balance at the end of the week. A cousin who lives in Belgium also joined us for lunch with her husband - she's not in the photo as she took it. So it was a real family reunion. 

It was very strange having lunch in what was our old sitting room.  I am pleased, though, that the house is now full of people again. Joanne who runs the cafe and her husband have done a really good job renovating  - it looks really smart and modern. I gave her a copy of this photograph of Mum and Dad. and hope she will display it. She says that quite a few of her customers remember coming into the  Post Office and talk about them.

The food was good too.  I had homemade vegetable soup which was delicious and a slice of wheaten bread. Some of the others had 'Ulster Fries' complete with plenty of fried bread - soda farls, potato bread and a pancake.  This comes in the standard size below and a 'Wee Fry' for smaller appetites.  There are also plenty of buns and traybakes to have with tea and coffee served in pretty floral mugs and you can buy Morelli's ice cream to takeaway at the counter.  We used to have to drive all the way to Portstewart for that and now you can get it in Ballyronan.

We stayed in Moyola River Cottage, just a few miles from Ballyronan.  It was really lovely clean and well equipped cottage in a quiet spot near the river.  We didn't know the owners though some of our relatives did. They were very friendly and it's a great place to stay if you want to visit the area.  It's near Seamus Heaney HomePlace too - I'd have like to go back there but there wasn't time.

On Sunday morning we went for a riverside walk right down to where the Moyola joins Lough Neagh.  It was a glorious day - the sun shone all weekend.  And then we went back to Ballyronan for a walk around the marina there.  It's a long time now since any of us lived in the village so not many people remember us but we did run into some familiar faces in the local shop. 

 

The Moyola River.  Seamus Heaney writes about the river in his poem 'A New Song'

My cousin Lorna and I also visited an elderly lady who was friendly with my mother before she was married.  I am continuing my research into family history and it was a real pleasure to talk to this lady, Nan Dale, about her memories.  She told us about what life was like for them in the 50s.  They used to cycle together to Magherafelt to catch a bus.  Mum used to work in what Nan called the Assistance Board and Nan worked the telephone exchange.  She also told us about holidays they spent in Bray in Co Wicklow and also in Portrush. 

We only stayed two nights as at present it is only me, the eldest sister, who is retired.  It was all over much too quickly. I plan to return later in the year to do some more research and visit relatives I didn't have time to see this weekend.