LOTS TO UPDATE! - The storm was crazy, worst I've experience. Part of my shed roof blew away, a tree came down on a road in front of me. Loads of damage everywhere. Decided it was too risky to try and get ahead of the storm but I managed to catch my original ferry in the end and made it to the Running Show. BUT! Huge numbers of trees came down in the storm, particularly in plantation forests like the one in this video. So there is a real chance this place could now be inaccessible if that's the case. haven't had a chance to check yet. Yet another downside of this type of forestry.
It was pretty wild. My mate in Sligo had a couple of trees fall over into the garden. One of our cats nearly blew away. I was watching him out the window and he couldn't get down the garden to the house, just kept getting blown back. Had to go out and rescue him. His superiority complex went away pretty quick. Great video, and some lovely shots. Can't wait for my next trip north for the sausages. Only time during the whole Brexit debate that I went "Hang on maybe this person has a point here!" 😅
Hey Stephen I just wanted to let you know that your videos have made me love the nature that surrounds me im a young Irish lad and know ive been walking all the mountains around me and exploring woods all because of your videos and i just wanted to say thank you for putting your content out for people like me to see Slan
Oh that’s brilliant! I’m delighted I’ve helped get you outside 🙂 I didn’t properly start hiking in the mountains until I was in my late 20s. Wish I’d started sooner, there’s so much to explore out there
A short history of the farm... Robert Haughain who lived in the cottage in 1863 was born in 1800 and lived to a grand old age of 92, dying in 1892. He had a daughter Susan born in 1836 who married Patrick Duggan in 1864, They had 5 children, their last being born on 7th February 1877, with Patrick sadly dying a week later on the 15th Feb from Uremic poisoning. This is probably why, when the father Robert Haughain died in 1892, it was recorded that Susan was the occupier of the house. One of their sons Robert who grew up in the cottage married a Mary Kane in the summer of 1901 and at some point, between this and 1904 they moved to Millom in Cumbria possibly to find employment in the large iron works there(he became a bobbin carrier in a cotton mill). He also brought his mother Susan who would have been in her lates 60’s at this time and lived in Albert Street in the town, not far from the iron works. Susan passed away in 1912 at the age of 76. Another son of Susan and Patrick was Peter Duggan born in 1868. He stayed at the family farm and married Ellen Rodgers in 1893 bringing up their family of three at the cottage. It looks like the family got to stay a while on the land when it was purchased by the Water Commissioners in 1899 as the revision records shows the family ceasing to live there in 1908. They moved from here to the townland of Levallyclanone on the outskirts of Rostrevor where Peter passed away in the winter of 1948.
Great to see the red squirrel coming back in Ireland. I remember a few decades ago all you'd see were grey ones, with the very odd red one. Now I almost always see red ones on my wanderings.
Shame you had to finish early but as soon as you mentioned Eowyn I knew it was going to be a no-choice scenario. Those abandoned buildings were so poignant. It's amazing how quickly large structures can be completely swallowed up by a forest.
Seeing that Red Squirrel reminded me that a couple of days ago I was going past Fofannny with my 5 year old grandson when he said the missing forest made him feel sad, I asked why that was and he replied "where do all the birds and other wee animals live now?" It does make you think.
Nice video! I research Mourne and looked at who lived there. Those were separate family cottages, not a village, and the Griffith valuation for 1864 shows the families living there (numbers 1, 2 and 3 in the Mullartown townland)
Hey Dermot, Gary here :-) Just doing the same myself! Looks like a Robert Hawkin (Haughain) lived there followed by Duggans who then got evicted by the water commissioners in 1908😞 I've been there myself, its nestled pretty deep in the forest. There's another house nearby lived in by the Scandridges which is in better condition. I just hope they don't go near them and completely demolish whats left of the history.
Another interesting video. Well done Stephen. It seems everywhere you go you find traces of dirty campers. So much of history is buried beneath our feet. Glad you made it to the running show.
Great video Stephen. I cannot believe how dry it looked underfoot as well, given the recent snow. Last time I was up that way, even the paths were streams. Great spot on the red squirrel, we saw 3 in the same tree over by Rostrevor a couple of years ago, and I spotted one near St John's Town of Dalry (where you stopped for a feed on your bike recently) when I was riding north to get the boat to Belfast. Ive now got 3 greys that visit my patio every day, they more or less bang on the patio door if I haven't left nuts out for them. Comical wee creatures. The red squirrel sighting was one of the highlights of that bike trip. Sad in a way that the poor wee thing you spotted is about to be made homeless. Keep up the good work Pal
Great video (again). I spent so many days in my late teens and 20’s hiking through the Mournes, but I usually stuck to established tracks in an effort to get to my destination or next peak as efficiently as possible. Looking at this makes me wish I had gone off path a little more. Keep up the good work!
I’ve just recently found your channel and I’m obsessed. Love all the different videos you do, the reviews, running, the more serious documentary style. I particularly like the historical stuff.
Great stuff Stephen! We love to see the app used for this type of stuff! The area seems to be a hotbed for undiscovered villages, dwellings, holy wells and all sorts! Looking forward to the next discovery!! 🤠
Brilliant stuff again Stephen absolutely love the history fascinating I was looking forward to the camping overnight but I get it and I hope you made it to work in Liverpool. Weather was atrocious, wasn’t it?.take care of yourself and yours.Alan. 🥇⛺️👍
absolutely loved this video, love the history of forgotten places and imagining the people who used to live there and how they went about their daily lives.......never knowing that 200 yrs later a solitary man with a magic picture box would be showing their little village to the world xx
BWC were Belfast Water Commissioners. Though they were behind the forcible removal of some families, they were also responsible for Silent Valley, the Mourne Wall and the protection of the Mourne landscape that we see today. No idea why tree felling is allowed though when they are also busy replanting the Mournes with permanent forests. The Forestry Service should be renamed the Deforestry Service.
Love your content especially your humour. I can’t walk very far so live vicariously through wild camping channels and yours is my favourite ❤ thank you for getting me out into nature and history 😊
awww too bad you had to leave 😢 it was a really good one, the one music track you picked at around 11:00 really gave a melancholic vibe, representing the forest in such a good way
I’m glad they decided/couldn’t make annalong valley into anger reservoir…firstly because it’s awesome to hike in and secondly because then we wouldn’t have gotten the tunnel through binnian which is another Irish masterpiece or engineering done by candlelight and lots of loud bangs where they met in the middle under the mountain, diverting the water from the annalong valley Under the mountains and then rejoins silent valley reservoir. Every day is a school day. Thanks.
Now THAT would be scary….think it’s a mile long from memory, or just short of it. Nowadays we can’t fix potholes, back then, men in cloth caps blew a mile long hole through a mountain. Some pups!!
Belfast & District Water Commissioners is the ones that forced the people to leave their homes, another great video Stephen about our forgotten past that's right on our door steps.
Great video, you should check out the Deserted Village in Carlingford on the foothill's of Barnevave just off Slieve Foye, great walk up through Queen Maeve's gap onto the sandle that leads to Slieve Foye.
Always love your creativity with your adventures. Last year a spend a few weekends exploring abandoned mining towns here in the PNW and found them fascinating. It wasn’t until a found the half eaten carcass of a deer that I realized I was also in a cougars den Happy hiking!
I sympathize with the comment about the dead forest being creepy. In the late 70’s I took a trail in Oregon in the US. The original plan was to have a friend drop me off at one trailhead, and pick me up at the other end a leisurely three days later. What the map didn’t show was that a section had been logged about 5 years earlier. The logging company had replanted, but because the practice was relatively new and nobody knew what they were doing, it had been replanted with a single type of tree, and in a geometric pattern like in an orchard. There was no underbrush, no animals, no birds, not even any insects. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and my caveman brain started screaming at me. Even though I knew why it was happening, I couldn’t stop myself from spooking. I ended up hiking at an accelerated pace for about 16 hours (no way was I going to camp at night there). I spent the rest of the trip camping at my destination trailhead waiting for pickup. Call me a wimp, but all my instincts kept insisting that the only possible reason for it to be so quiet was that there was an extremely dangerous predator near me. I knew there wasn’t, I knew the only living thing for miles was the one species of pine, but it didn’t matter. Instincts can be very powerful. Never been so irrationally spooked in my life.
It’s crazy how sometimes your instincts and senses totally overrule your logic. I’ve occasionally seen things that haven’t been there when camping in dark forests.
@@StephenJReid That is the pattern recognition part of your brain. You see something out of the corner of your eye, and your brain starts going through the files looking for something that matches. Because humans are survivors, it starts with the most dangerous possibles and works towards the less dangerous until it finds a match. At the same time, it dumps adrenaline to get you ready for a fight/flight/freeze/panic reaction. Been there, done that, had a miserable night’s sleep.
The reason they plant like that isn’t because they don’t know what they’re doing. It’s for a commercial purpose. Closely planted trees grow faster, straighter and with less large knots. They roll in and clear fell it when the trees reach the diameter and height required. They don’t care about undergrowth, wildlife etc. Biodiversity is a dirty word to them.
A true hiker yells when the prickly bushes tear their skin off while bushwacking in shorts. 😂 Great video. I am heading to Scottland in 2025 to hike the Great Highland Way bc of your video of the GHW. I felt it gave me a realistic idea of how miserable it could be, and I thought, "I could stand that."
Hand smack to head...yes the West Highland Way. I confuse it all the time with the Great Glen Way. I want to do both...just continue all the way up north.
Great video mate, I love seeing these forgotten dwellings and you camping around them. I hope there's more you can find on those maps, keep them coming!
Great video, have subscribed after watching this and the thread about threats and abuse. Which sounds odd, but was impressed with your reaction to the haters. Peace x
Thats a great one for AbandonedNI. The start of your quest over the Seefins and towrds Rocky is the old annalong horshoe race when it start from the head road. The mourne sky ultra also comes down through there now before hitting the head road, super video and a bit different :)
Had my tent on that spot few weeks back (my last vid), explored all round the area for an hour. As you mentioned the wind fall has probably extended into the area now after the recent storms. 😢
@ lol was the flattest spot I could find after trampin about and was really sheltered. Yea not far from the already fallen trees, bound to be a mess now, wee spot I would use by the river was pretty wrecked with blow down from Darragh , would be flattened after eowyn 😢
Great deep dive in your country's history. Love that. Way more thrilling than simply reading about in a book! By the way: thanks for your recipe for sausage-on-a-stick. Wiill give it a try. Might work...
Unfortunately there are loads and loads of old ruined cottages in commercial forrestries that are bound to be toppled as the trees are harvested. I know the big machines these days are pretty good in controlling what the trees do as they are felled but I really doubt the operators are gonna be v careful around some old stone walls. Also, the last few years the quantity of diseased forrestries I've seen, half the trees are dieing/dead. I don't remember there being nearly as much when I was a kid. Not that I'm a big fan of planted forestry but healthy ones still have to be better than diseased ones.
Another challenge for you Stephen...to find the Fire Temple....that a group of Zorastrians from Iran came and set up near Lough Allen in County Leitrim in the 1600's and then abandoned .....WB Yeats knew of it and visited it with members of the Golden Dawn
We were lucky and the worst of the Storm missed us, I did have to cut up a small tree that had blow down across the road. Good job I keep a small hand saw in the boot, normally for ripping down lumber. Not by much either as there was only one car in front of me when we came upon the tree. Very enjoyable video as once again.
@ I have been toying with the idea of buying a battery operated one for a while. As I have plenty of batteries for my power tools. Then don’t have to mix petrol and two stroke oil. Plus the servicing of them. Other than sharpening the chain.
Can’t understand why people would leave their camping gear behind when they’ve paid money for it and would need it next time? Can understand there is dirty hallions who leave rubbish behind but from a practical standpoint why would you leave your sleeping bag and gear behind. Enjoyed the video and the quest to find the lost houses!
What kind of eejit walks there? Me, when I decided to take a shortcut last year. Family nearly called mountain rescue. Great fun, glad you got out before the storm, we still don't have power.
I live just below it, brilliant on a Sunny day and good run from annaloghan mountain in Ravendale over to carlingford. It's call the legends run after cuchulainn and brown bull of cooley legend
Please tell me you are going to do a video about the O’Haughan family. I love this piece of history, and the places associated with it...and the story of the lost gold....if this isn't what you are referring to [but i think it is], then please do a video about the O’Haughan family 🙏
@ I have noticed almost everything is illegal or almost impossible to do nowadays 😥 I live in the new forest and metal detecting is illegal hear as well.
There's an old abandoned village outside Broadford co limerick, it was called Brazil believe it or not, don't know if that is the exact spelling, I think it's residents died in the potato famine some also probably left on coffin ship's for America
Horrible time in Irish history. So many of those famine villages. It’s mind boggling just how many people died or left. 1 million starved to death and 2million left. Population never recovered, even today
Plenty of trousers with detachable legs. That's not the only one on the Island big in Scotland. ( Only a film but thats still there Ryans Daughter village. )
huh, my assumption (old map ~200 years) was famine+evictions+emigrations... if it was mainland europe or uk I'd have assumed black death if it was abandoned earlier.
The foresters will be pissed off with you removing the forestry marking string from the trees. It’s not litter it’s marking trees that are either diseased or can be retained for use.
Omg hi! I'm from N.I. too! hehe Just came across your channel for the first time. It's so cool to see these places that have been just forgotten to time! Brilliant video, this is super interesting
Thanks for the interesting footage, I really enjoyed it. How is your Alpi 40 holding up? Any more issues other than the separated Velcro from the roll top?
This was an incredible adventure! The history behind the abandoned village is fascinating, Your passion for exploration is truly inspiring. Thanks for sharing this fantastic journey with us sir.
Cool video as always, ur life is so awesome 😎👍😍 Pity u had to leave so quick, glad u got to ur show, sorry about ur shed, glad the tree didn't hit ya, very cute lil squirrel 🐿️ Really hope that place isnt wrecked now Some amount of poor trees getting it atm between forestry everywhere & these storms 😢
I've always wondered why Britain has so few trees, they keep cutting them down. Nice stone walls, and land grabs are a tradition of imperialism/colonialism/aristocracy/degeneracy, etc. Britain doesn't know how to do controlled burns to manage woodlands either. The downed trees have very shallow root systems so no attempt was made to provide deeper rooting of the trees.
Not just Britain. The Irish had cut down most of the trees here before the British showed up and today the Irish government isn’t doing enough to restore them
We knew that weather was coming for a week, did you not check the long range forecast?. Thought that would have been good practice if not essential preparation for a walk like that.
The forest is dead /dying anyhow, any idea why?, (the absence of bird song was truly eerie) but is there not any protection for red squirrel habitat? Glad you personally weren’t too badly impacted by Eowyn. I remember the ‘87 storm here in Kent, which I think was a similar sort of “weather bomb”. It was scary and pretty destructive.
LOTS TO UPDATE! - The storm was crazy, worst I've experience. Part of my shed roof blew away, a tree came down on a road in front of me. Loads of damage everywhere. Decided it was too risky to try and get ahead of the storm but I managed to catch my original ferry in the end and made it to the Running Show. BUT! Huge numbers of trees came down in the storm, particularly in plantation forests like the one in this video. So there is a real chance this place could now be inaccessible if that's the case. haven't had a chance to check yet.
Yet another downside of this type of forestry.
Dominos!
Well done for staying safe
It was pretty wild. My mate in Sligo had a couple of trees fall over into the garden. One of our cats nearly blew away. I was watching him out the window and he couldn't get down the garden to the house, just kept getting blown back. Had to go out and rescue him. His superiority complex went away pretty quick. Great video, and some lovely shots. Can't wait for my next trip north for the sausages. Only time during the whole Brexit debate that I went "Hang on maybe this person has a point here!" 😅
@@irielive7834 we make the best sausages 😂😂
@@StephenJReid the Scottish make good sausages 🙂
Love the footage of you running away from the camera, knowing full well you're going to be walking back to get it again.
No I just leave them there and pay someone to pick them up after me the next day. 🤪
Stephen what is the discount for that app. Please, love the video , we also have a lost village in the sleeve blooms here in co.laois
Excellent video! There's an old mining village deep in a wood in Wicklow too, in fact that's what I thought your video was going to be about.
Jus thinkin the same thing 😂
The archaeologists for that region should be told of the risk to wrecking historical buildings. They can issue orders to protect them.
Hahahaha the archeologists for the region. Good one!
@@serendipidus8482 What do you mean?
Hey Stephen I just wanted to let you know that your videos have made me love the nature that surrounds me im a young Irish lad and know ive been walking all the mountains around me and exploring woods all because of your videos and i just wanted to say thank you for putting your content out for people like me to see Slan
Oh that’s brilliant! I’m delighted I’ve helped get you outside 🙂 I didn’t properly start hiking in the mountains until I was in my late 20s. Wish I’d started sooner, there’s so much to explore out there
Larry murphy
A short history of the farm... Robert Haughain who lived in the cottage in 1863 was born in 1800 and lived to a grand old age of 92, dying in 1892. He had a daughter Susan born in 1836 who married Patrick Duggan in 1864, They had 5 children, their last being born on 7th February 1877, with Patrick sadly dying a week later on the 15th Feb from Uremic poisoning. This is probably why, when the father Robert Haughain died in 1892, it was recorded that Susan was the occupier of the house.
One of their sons Robert who grew up in the cottage married a Mary Kane in the summer of 1901 and at some point, between this and 1904 they moved to Millom in Cumbria possibly to find employment in the large iron works there(he became a bobbin carrier in a cotton mill). He also brought his mother Susan who would have been in her lates 60’s at this time and lived in Albert Street in the town, not far from the iron works. Susan passed away in 1912 at the age of 76.
Another son of Susan and Patrick was Peter Duggan born in 1868. He stayed at the family farm and married Ellen Rodgers in 1893 bringing up their family of three at the cottage. It looks like the family got to stay a while on the land when it was purchased by the Water Commissioners in 1899 as the revision records shows the family ceasing to live there in 1908. They moved from here to the townland of Levallyclanone on the outskirts of Rostrevor where Peter passed away in the winter of 1948.
Thanks Gary!
Great to see the red squirrel coming back in Ireland. I remember a few decades ago all you'd see were grey ones, with the very odd red one. Now I almost always see red ones on my wanderings.
Yeah it’s amazing to spot one, there’s something really special about them. I even saw a couple of Pine Martens a few years back
@@StephenJReid I've only seen a pine marten once, scurrying up. It was gone as soon as I spotted it. They know how to do it.
I’ve seen a red squirrel a couple of times in Silent Valley park not too far from the carpark.
Shame you had to finish early but as soon as you mentioned Eowyn I knew it was going to be a no-choice scenario. Those abandoned buildings were so poignant. It's amazing how quickly large structures can be completely swallowed up by a forest.
Seeing that Red Squirrel reminded me that a couple of days ago I was going past Fofannny with my 5 year old grandson when he said the missing forest made him feel sad, I asked why that was and he replied "where do all the birds and other wee animals live now?" It does make you think.
They seem to be leaving clusters of trees in a few places, possibly as a haven for animals
@StephenJReid it's a bit like the residents of the "village", forced relocation.
Nice video! I research Mourne and looked at who lived there. Those were separate family cottages, not a village, and the Griffith valuation for 1864 shows the families living there (numbers 1, 2 and 3 in the Mullartown townland)
Hey Dermot, Gary here :-) Just doing the same myself! Looks like a Robert Hawkin (Haughain) lived there followed by Duggans who then got evicted by the water commissioners in 1908😞 I've been there myself, its nestled pretty deep in the forest. There's another house nearby lived in by the Scandridges which is in better condition. I just hope they don't go near them and completely demolish whats left of the history.
Fascinating! I love how Eine Kleine Nachtmusik introduced your rush to find the village.
Another interesting video. Well done Stephen. It seems everywhere you go you find traces of dirty campers. So much of history is buried beneath our feet. Glad you made it to the running show.
Thank you so much for bringing us on this adventure - loved every minute of it. GB
Your sense of humor is like a cherry on the pie of this channel. 🙂
Hmmmmm pie, now I’m hungry
Well, that's never a good thing on the trail, so ... Let's go with 'cherry on the tent', then. 😉🙃
Great video Stephen. I cannot believe how dry it looked underfoot as well, given the recent snow. Last time I was up that way, even the paths were streams. Great spot on the red squirrel, we saw 3 in the same tree over by Rostrevor a couple of years ago, and I spotted one near St John's Town of Dalry (where you stopped for a feed on your bike recently) when I was riding north to get the boat to Belfast. Ive now got 3 greys that visit my patio every day, they more or less bang on the patio door if I haven't left nuts out for them. Comical wee creatures. The red squirrel sighting was one of the highlights of that bike trip. Sad in a way that the poor wee thing you spotted is about to be made homeless. Keep up the good work Pal
Great video (again). I spent so many days in my late teens and 20’s hiking through the Mournes, but I usually stuck to established tracks in an effort to get to my destination or next peak as efficiently as possible. Looking at this makes me wish I had gone off path a little more. Keep up the good work!
Amazing what you find off trail
I’ve just recently found your channel and I’m obsessed. Love all the different videos you do, the reviews, running, the more serious documentary style. I particularly like the historical stuff.
Thanks Jessica! 🙂 I like making the mix
Great stuff Stephen! We love to see the app used for this type of stuff! The area seems to be a hotbed for undiscovered villages, dwellings, holy wells and all sorts! Looking forward to the next discovery!! 🤠
Thanks! 🙂 it’s a brilliant feature. I have something similar planned
I took advantage of Stephen's link and downloaded the app and joined up to get the old maps. Can you tell us when they date from please?
@@TheOpenboaterHey! It’s between 1830-40 as I understand!
@@HiiKER_global Thank you. Its really easy to use with great detail.
nothing ever stays the same. fun to explore and speculate. thanks for sharing
Indeed it does not! Important to remember that sometimes when we get concerned by change. It’s always happened and always will
Brilliant stuff again Stephen absolutely love the history fascinating I was looking forward to the camping overnight but I get it and I hope you made it to work in Liverpool. Weather was atrocious, wasn’t it?.take care of yourself and yours.Alan. 🥇⛺️👍
So lovely to meet you today, and love you channel.
Great to meet you too Keith! 🙂
absolutely loved this video, love the history of forgotten places and imagining the people who used to live there and how they went about their daily lives.......never knowing that 200 yrs later a solitary man with a magic picture box would be showing their little village to the world xx
Man, I was totally ready for the great story about the people that lived there! Hopefully you can get that up soon.
Great video, such a shame these lost villages will be flattened. Lovely to see the red squirrel too!
BWC were Belfast Water Commissioners. Though they were behind the forcible removal of some families, they were also responsible for Silent Valley, the Mourne Wall and the protection of the Mourne landscape that we see today. No idea why tree felling is allowed though when they are also busy replanting the Mournes with permanent forests. The Forestry Service should be renamed the Deforestry Service.
Love your content especially your humour. I can’t walk very far so live vicariously through wild camping channels and yours is my favourite ❤ thank you for getting me out into nature and history 😊
You’re very welcome Liz 🙂
Greetings from Da Nang Vietnam. Great Video. Hope your trip to the mainland was successful.
You are the master at fun, exciting, informative films.
awww too bad you had to leave 😢 it was a really good one, the one music track you picked at around 11:00 really gave a melancholic vibe, representing the forest in such a good way
Thanks 🙂 wish I’d been able to spend the night, but I kinda got to camp a bit
I’m glad they decided/couldn’t make annalong valley into anger reservoir…firstly because it’s awesome to hike in and secondly because then we wouldn’t have gotten the tunnel through binnian which is another Irish masterpiece or engineering done by candlelight and lots of loud bangs where they met in the middle under the mountain, diverting the water from the annalong valley Under the mountains and then rejoins silent valley reservoir. Every day is a school day.
Thanks.
The tunnel is amazing, I’d love to make a. Video walking through it sometime
Now THAT would be scary….think it’s a mile long from memory, or just short of it.
Nowadays we can’t fix potholes, back then, men in cloth caps blew a mile long hole through a mountain. Some pups!!
Belfast & District Water Commissioners is the ones that forced the people to leave their homes, another great video Stephen about our forgotten past that's right on our door steps.
Great video, you should check out the Deserted Village in Carlingford on the foothill's of Barnevave just off Slieve Foye, great walk up through Queen Maeve's gap onto the sandle that leads to Slieve Foye.
Been there a couple of times, always intended to make a video but never got around to it
Always love your creativity with your adventures. Last year a spend a few weekends exploring abandoned mining towns here in the PNW and found them fascinating. It wasn’t until a found the half eaten carcass of a deer that I realized I was also in a cougars den
Happy hiking!
Great video Stephen, love watching ❤❤
Thanks Alan
I sympathize with the comment about the dead forest being creepy.
In the late 70’s I took a trail in Oregon in the US. The original plan was to have a friend drop me off at one trailhead, and pick me up at the other end a leisurely three days later.
What the map didn’t show was that a section had been logged about 5 years earlier. The logging company had replanted, but because the practice was relatively new and nobody knew what they were doing, it had been replanted with a single type of tree, and in a geometric pattern like in an orchard.
There was no underbrush, no animals, no birds, not even any insects.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and my caveman brain started screaming at me.
Even though I knew why it was happening, I couldn’t stop myself from spooking. I ended up hiking at an accelerated pace for about 16 hours (no way was I going to camp at night there).
I spent the rest of the trip camping at my destination trailhead waiting for pickup.
Call me a wimp, but all my instincts kept insisting that the only possible reason for it to be so quiet was that there was an extremely dangerous predator near me.
I knew there wasn’t, I knew the only living thing for miles was the one species of pine, but it didn’t matter. Instincts can be very powerful.
Never been so irrationally spooked in my life.
Bad juju. It's the ones who stopped who never got to tell that tale.
It’s crazy how sometimes your instincts and senses totally overrule your logic. I’ve occasionally seen things that haven’t been there when camping in dark forests.
@@StephenJReid That is the pattern recognition part of your brain. You see something out of the corner of your eye, and your brain starts going through the files looking for something that matches. Because humans are survivors, it starts with the most dangerous possibles and works towards the less dangerous until it finds a match. At the same time, it dumps adrenaline to get you ready for a fight/flight/freeze/panic reaction. Been there, done that, had a miserable night’s sleep.
@@StephenJReid like foxes with frying pans?
The reason they plant like that isn’t because they don’t know what they’re doing. It’s for a commercial purpose. Closely planted trees grow faster, straighter and with less large knots. They roll in and clear fell it when the trees reach the diameter and height required. They don’t care about undergrowth, wildlife etc. Biodiversity is a dirty word to them.
You make misery associated with hiking look fun. Good job! 😊
I like the misery
Thanks for the video. Just got my Durston at last and I love it. Thanks for the recommendation
I believe a hamlet is what you call a settlement smaller than a village.
Yeah I think that’s definitely more accurate. Hard to tell if it may have been bigger as often stones from old houses are taken away to build walls
A clachan?
Great video bro! Nice work as always
Thanks 🙂
A true hiker yells when the prickly bushes tear their skin off while bushwacking in shorts. 😂 Great video. I am heading to Scottland in 2025 to hike the Great Highland Way bc of your video of the GHW. I felt it gave me a realistic idea of how miserable it could be, and I thought, "I could stand that."
😂 gotta embrace the misery. There’s a joy in it somehow. West Highland Way I assume? I think about it all the time, want to do it again
Hand smack to head...yes the West Highland Way. I confuse it all the time with the Great Glen Way. I want to do both...just continue all the way up north.
Great video mate, I love seeing these forgotten dwellings and you camping around them. I hope there's more you can find on those maps, keep them coming!
I’ve spotted a few more interesting things!
Great story telling Stephen. Loved the close-up shots (+ the sounds) when you were setting up camp :-)
Thanks Peter 🙂
Great video, have subscribed after watching this and the thread about threats and abuse. Which sounds odd, but was impressed with your reaction to the haters.
Peace x
great find man!
Thanks! 🙂
Thats a great one for AbandonedNI. The start of your quest over the Seefins and towrds Rocky is the old annalong horshoe race when it start from the head road. The mourne sky ultra also comes down through there now before hitting the head road, super video and a bit different :)
Thanks 🙂 yeah I’m trying to include a bit more mystery/history in these kinds of videos
Had my tent on that spot few weeks back (my last vid), explored all round the area for an hour. As you mentioned the wind fall has probably extended into the area now after the recent storms. 😢
I did think the ground looked quite flat! Hate to see what its like up there now
@ lol was the flattest spot I could find after trampin about and was really sheltered. Yea not far from the already fallen trees, bound to be a mess now, wee spot I would use by the river was pretty wrecked with blow down from Darragh , would be flattened after eowyn 😢
I was wondering where my string had gone to, I was lost for hours STEPHEN!!! 😂
😂
Thanks for another cracking trip ❤ it
Thanks for watching 🙂
Great deep dive in your country's history. Love that. Way more thrilling than simply reading about in a book! By the way: thanks for your recipe for sausage-on-a-stick. Wiill give it a try. Might work...
Thanks 🙂 wasn’t a hugely deep dive but hopefully had enough. Make sure and follow the recipe very closely, it’s easy to get it wrong 😂
I'll do my very best!😅
Unfortunately there are loads and loads of old ruined cottages in commercial forrestries that are bound to be toppled as the trees are harvested.
I know the big machines these days are pretty good in controlling what the trees do as they are felled but I really doubt the operators are gonna be v careful around some old stone walls.
Also, the last few years the quantity of diseased forrestries I've seen, half the trees are dieing/dead. I don't remember there being nearly as much when I was a kid.
Not that I'm a big fan of planted forestry but healthy ones still have to be better than diseased ones.
Same goes for any care go afforded to natural trees
Nice 1 Stephen was wondering what you were going camp in my lunch bag is bigger than your backpack 😆 😂
😂
It would be interesting to see a Lidar map of this area.
Oh definitely!
Another challenge for you Stephen...to find the Fire Temple....that a group of Zorastrians from Iran came and set up near Lough Allen in County Leitrim in the 1600's and then abandoned .....WB Yeats knew of it and visited it with members of the Golden Dawn
Did the village have a name? Great post Stephen
Anna long valley
We were lucky and the worst of the Storm missed us, I did have to cut up a small tree that had blow down across the road. Good job I keep a small hand saw in the boot, normally for ripping down lumber. Not by much either as there was only one car in front of me when we came upon the tree. Very enjoyable video as once again.
I’m now debating buying a chainsaw. Seems to come in handy after a storm
@ I have been toying with the idea of buying a battery operated one for a while. As I have plenty of batteries for my power tools. Then don’t have to mix petrol and two stroke oil. Plus the servicing of them. Other than sharpening the chain.
My first guess would be the famine? Oooh. Not that. Love learnning something new. Thank you!
Good guess and a correct one for loads of these abandoned villages. Have a future video planned for this.
My first thought was "the English".
Sorry about that 😔
Very nice work
Thanks 🙂
That drone footage is top class 👌😉😂. Thanks for the shout out👌
No problem, thanks for sending me the shot!
@@StephenJReid 👌
Quite a few abandoned villages in Ireland. Sometimes referred to as famine villages.
Can’t understand why people would leave their camping gear behind when they’ve paid money for it and would need it next time? Can understand there is dirty hallions who leave rubbish behind but from a practical standpoint why would you leave your sleeping bag and gear behind. Enjoyed the video and the quest to find the lost houses!
What kind of eejit walks there? Me, when I decided to take a shortcut last year. Family nearly called mountain rescue.
Great fun, glad you got out before the storm, we still don't have power.
😂😂 easy to get lost in there
You are an amazing man Steve. love all your videos, best wishes from Spain. ❤💛Tayto Cheese & Onion 😉
The best flavour 🙂
I live just below it, brilliant on a Sunny day and good run from annaloghan mountain in Ravendale over to carlingford. It's call the legends run after cuchulainn and brown bull of cooley legend
Please tell me you are going to do a video about the O’Haughan family. I love this piece of history, and the places associated with it...and the story of the lost gold....if this isn't what you are referring to [but i think it is], then please do a video about the O’Haughan family 🙏
Not familiar with that story. What’s the short version?
Man thank you for getting this on camera 🙏❤️🔥🌄
Thanks for watching
There are similar ruins in and around the dams up at Woodburn and Carn forests too
Would love to do a bit of metal detecting round there. You would definitely find things
Problem is that it’s illegal without proper permissions and license
@ I have noticed almost everything is illegal or almost impossible to do nowadays 😥 I live in the new forest and metal detecting is illegal hear as well.
it makes me so sad it’s going to be destroyed my ma would love this
Wild ponies!! Wowzah
Funnily enough I was sitting with a Teddy bear watching you 😂, hope you caught an earlier ferry, doubting it though 😊
There was a teddy bear watching me? 😂
@StephenJReid 🤣 how come?
Thems some gnarly old trunks 😮
Trees, I mean 😅
😂
5 degrees C is our winters here in the north of South Africa 😂, I would definitely be wearing warm clothes
If it had been windy, rainy or cloudy I’d have been in warmer clothes. But was quite pleasant 😂
HaHA Mr. Holly was just the distraction! You've fallen for their trap.
They’d been plotting that for months!
There's an old abandoned village outside Broadford co limerick, it was called Brazil believe it or not, don't know if that is the exact spelling, I think it's residents died in the potato famine some also probably left on coffin ship's for America
Horrible time in Irish history. So many of those famine villages. It’s mind boggling just how many people died or left. 1 million starved to death and 2million left. Population never recovered, even today
A red squirrel and theyre about to wipe out it's habitat?
Teddy bear picnic! Youve win a subscriber
🧸 🥪 🌳
Where abouts in Ireland is this mate? Great video. Really enjoyed it, thanks
County Down in Northern Ireland.
Plenty of trousers with detachable legs. That's not the only one on the Island big in Scotland. ( Only a film but thats still there Ryans Daughter village. )
Can you do a video about the numbers of trees coming down in the storm? It was horrendous here
been thinking about it. Although might be one for my other channel. I'll see.
Errrr...What's up Doc? Haven't visited our forests yet. Thought access roads would be interesting. Expecting it to be "gappy". 😬
Never know what you’ll find!
Hope the villagers who lived there created a history of the village.
String was probably a marker for the forestry people.
What are they going to put in the valley after the sick trees get axed?Another windmill or a data centre?
huh, my assumption (old map ~200 years) was famine+evictions+emigrations... if it was mainland europe or uk I'd have assumed black death if it was abandoned earlier.
wish you spent more time on the stream nice to look at
Yeah I got distracted by all the felled trees
The foresters will be pissed off with you removing the forestry marking string from the trees. It’s not litter it’s marking trees that are either diseased or can be retained for use.
Omg hi! I'm from N.I. too! hehe Just came across your channel for the first time. It's so cool to see these places that have been just forgotten to time! Brilliant video, this is super interesting
Thanks weevonne 🙂
Wow there's about three inches of debris on the ground that you're staking your tent in. Not very secure 😮
Pegs were at least 10 inches long. Not a problem. That’s one of the reasons I just make my own pegs when camping in a forest
Thanks for the interesting footage, I really enjoyed it. How is your Alpi 40 holding up? Any more issues other than the separated Velcro from the roll top?
No more issues, still really like it
This was an incredible adventure! The history behind the abandoned village is fascinating, Your passion for exploration is truly inspiring. Thanks for sharing this fantastic journey with us sir.
Thanks for coming along Ajay 🙂
@@StephenJReid You are always welcome sir
Cool video as always, ur life is so awesome 😎👍😍
Pity u had to leave so quick, glad u got to ur show, sorry about ur shed, glad the tree didn't hit ya, very cute lil squirrel 🐿️
Really hope that place isnt wrecked now
Some amount of poor trees getting it atm between forestry everywhere & these storms 😢
Lots of easy to burn deadwood. What was the burner?
Lixada titanium stove
the cinematography is amazing especially when u made your shelter
I've always wondered why Britain has so few trees, they keep cutting them down. Nice stone walls, and land grabs are a tradition of imperialism/colonialism/aristocracy/degeneracy, etc. Britain doesn't know how to do controlled burns to manage woodlands either. The downed trees have very shallow root systems so no attempt was made to provide deeper rooting of the trees.
Not just Britain. The Irish had cut down most of the trees here before the British showed up and today the Irish government isn’t doing enough to restore them
We knew that weather was coming for a week, did you not check the long range forecast?. Thought that would have been good practice if not essential preparation for a walk like that.
This was on Tuesday, the storm wasn’t forecast to hit until Friday morning so no point looking that far ahead.
Reminds me of Rat Onna Stick. RIP Terry Pratchett.
Estate agent, fixer upper in a bucolic setting only 500k. ONO.
😂
Such a shame if they destroy it all😢
Great video!
Thanks 🙂
The forest is dead /dying anyhow, any idea why?, (the absence of bird song was truly eerie) but is there not any protection for red squirrel habitat? Glad you personally weren’t too badly impacted by Eowyn. I remember the ‘87 storm here in Kent, which I think was a similar sort of “weather bomb”. It was scary and pretty destructive.
It’s a forestry plantation, so it’s a crop destined for harvesting for timber. Often ecological deserts.
Likely beetle infestation
Helle, Utvaer and Helle Nord v the polish nock offs. Lol