"What?" I hear you say, "Portadown has a
beach?"
Well, no, but as any forty-something north-Armagh
person who spent the summer holidays of their formative years in
Cranfield will tell you there is a "Portadown Beach"
!
Half a mile around from the Cranfield Point
headland of Carlingford Lough on the seaward side, this stoney
beach looks out directly on the shipping lane and the beginning of
the channel which ships take entering Carlingford
Lough.
If you listen (and especially carefully on a calm
day!) you will hear the "Hellyhunter", the first marker buoy to the
channel, which carries a bell which was used to warn and guide
ships on foggy days.
The beach can be accessed either by taking the
lane from the Cranfiled - Kilkeel Road or by parking at Cranfield
and walking around Cranfield Point where you will have a better
opportunity to enjoy the scenes over Carlingford Lough, towards
Haulbowline Lighthouse and the ruins on Blockhouse Island, built in
Elizabethan times, towards the end of the Irish wars, in a
determined effort to prevent the O'Neill forces getting supplied by
the Spanish. In fact, it was one of the last true Elizabethan forts
constructed on the Ulster coastline. The irony is that the building
lasted quite well until relatively recent times.
If you decide to approach from the laneway, you
will find a reasonably well-trodden pathway to the beach about
60-70 yards north of the old Coastguard watchtower. The path runs
in a southerly diagonal to the laneway and easily brings you to the
beach.
The Cache
The cache is a small black duct-taped tab-lock box.
When placed it contained notebook, pencil and some small
swaps.