To find out more about Carnahaugh, the Primary 6 students of St Mary’s Cushendall decided to speak to the McAlister family who were kind enough to tell the children a little about their memories of the clachan.
Our journey started at St Mary’s Primary School when we got into Mr Healy’s car and headed round the coast road. We took two tape recorders to record the information which we hoped would be useful to our study of Carnahaugh. As we travelled along the road we could see across the bay to McAlister’s house over in Carrivemurphy.
When we got there we were greeted by Mary and Greta. They took us into the living room so we could interview them. Before we started Pat came in and told us that at one time there was a very long loanin’ from Carnahaugh, up through Knockmoy to meet the ‘old road’. This was before the road from Cushendall to Ballymena existed. The ‘old road’ is the one our class used when we went to Arthur’s Hill to get a good view of Carnahaugh.
Mary and Greta told us that often they would walk from their farm in Carrivemurphy to their Uncle Dan’s house in Carnahaugh. They walked to the Bay Chapel using an old path through their fields, then round the shore to Waterfoot and up the old road at the top of the Barrack Bray. They then walked down through Knockmoy to Carnahaugh.
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| Shaun, Hannah & the McAlister Family |
When they were there they used to help deliver milk to people in Cushendall like Sarah Corrigan, Mrs O’Kane in the Court Hill and Mrs Anderson.
Mary also showed us a photograph of them at harvest time with the family standing beside a haystack in a field at their farm in Carnahaugh.
One of the most interesting things we were shown was the letter that had been written by the McAlisters’ grandfather in 1903. It had been sent to relations in America and told about what he did and how the family had just bought the farm at Ardclinis.
Before we left we were given an orange drink and biscuits. Our great visit had come to an end but we will never forget the experience!
By Shaun and Hannah