Historic Cavehill To Get A Facelift

The location for the story behind the Hollywood feature film Closing The Ring, is to have a major facelift.

Belfast's Cavehill Country Park - where the WWII American bomber at the heart of the fact-based storyline crashed - is to get a £70,000 facelift.

The work to upgrade paths and make access easier for the 140,000 visitors who visit the park annually is expected to begin shortly and will take approximately three months.

Belfast City Council's Countryside Officer, Anne Reid, said: "We need to airlift stones and railway sleepers because road access to the site is too difficult, and we are just waiting for the weather to improve so the work can begin.

"We will have to close the park to the public while the materials are being delivered but once that's done we will be looking for volunteers to help us carry out the work."

Funding is from the council itself and the Environment and Heritage Service National Heritage Grant programme.

The work involves erecting steps, widening paths, constructing drainage channels, clearing vegetation and planting.

It will be carried out in partnership with the Conservation Volunteers Northern Ireland who will co-ordinate volunteer workers.

"Cavehill Country Park is a very popular location for countryside recreation; attracting walkers, joggers and cyclists, both local and international.

"These works will allow some of the paths within the park to be brought up to a better standard than at present," said Anne.

The path around the Devil's Punchbowl - the mouth of an extinct volcano - will be closed for approximately six weeks but there are notices about path closures and alternative routes where possible.

The Cavehill and its iconic Napoleon's Nose feature - visible as facial features from miles around - is also reputed to have been the inspiration for author Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels.

He was a Church of Ireland minister in a parish near Carrickfergus in County Antrim prior to becoming Dean of Dublin, and becoming a successful and imaginative writer.

Known locally as Napoleon's Nose, the rocky outcrop's real name is McArts Fort.

Dominating the Belfast skyline, it was here that prior to the 1798 Rebellion the United Irishmen, led by Wolfe Tone, Henry Joy Mc Cracken and other Irish Republican Presbyterians, took their oath to liberate Ireland from British rule.

Further information on the improvement work and the opportunity to volunteer can be found on www.belfastcity.gov.uk/parks, or by telephoning Neville Walker or Helen Tomb of CVNI on 028 9064 5169.

See: Belfasthills

(GK/JM)(BMcC)