'...they looked into a room that was quite empty except for one big wardrobe; the sort that has a looking-glass in the door. There was nothing else in the room at all except a dead blue-bottle on the window-sill.
"Nothing there!" said Peter, and they all trooped out again - all except Lucy. She stayed behind because she thought it would be worth while trying the door of the wardrobe, even though she felt almost sure it would be locked. To her surprise it opened quite easily, and two moth-balls dropped out.
Looking into the inside, she saw several coats hanging up - mostly fur coats. There was nothing Lucy liked so much as the smell and feel of fur. She immediately stepped into the wardrobe and got in among the coats and rubbed her face against them, leaving the door open, of course, because she knew that it it very foolish to shut oneself into any wardrobe. Soon she went further in and found that there was a second row of coats hanging up behind the first one. It was almost quite dark in there and she kept her arms stretched out in front of her so as not to bump her face into the back of the wardrobe. She took a step further in - then two or three steps - always expecting to feel woodwork against the tips of her fingers. But she could not feel it.
"This must be a simply enormous wardrobe!" thought Lucy, going still further in and pushing the soft folds of the coats aside to make room for her. Then she noticed that there was something crunching under her feet. "I wonder is that more mothballs?" she thought, stooping down to feel it with her hand. But instead of feeling the hard, smooth wood of the floor of the wardrobe, she felt something soft and powdery and extremely cold. "This is very queer," she said, and went a step or two further.
Next moment she found that what was rubbing against her face and hands was no longer soft fur but something hard and rough and even prickly. "Why, it is just like branches of trees!" exclaimed Lucy. And then she saw that there was a light ahead of her; not a few inches away where the back of the wardrobe ought to have been, but a long way off. Something cold and soft was falling on her. A moment later she found that she was standing in the middle of a wood at night-time with snow under her feet and snowflakes falling through the air."
Thus the first discovery of a way into Narnia takes place in the wonderful series by C.S.Lewis.
Since ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ was published in 1950, children (and adults) all over the world have been mesmerised by the magical world of Narnia, through both the novels as well as various screen adaptations. Narnia is a place some never grow out of and much of its fictional inspiration can be found around Northern Ireland – especially in this wonderful area of The Mourne Mountains.
Indeed, Lewis himself wrote on several occasions that this beloved childhood destination was the source of a great amount of inspiration for the series.
In his essay ‘On Stories’ he wrote: “I have seen landscapes, notably in the Mourne Mountains and southwards which under a particular light made me feel that at any moment a giant might raise his head over the next ridge.”
And again, in letters written when living in England he spoke of the magic he felt present in his native home: “I yearn to see County Down in the snow, one almost expects to see a march of dwarfs dashing past. How I long to break into a world where such things were true.”
The Mournes remained a huge inspiration for Narnia but it wasn’t just the mountains, it was the areas and villages around the Mournes too, like that of Rostrevor. Indeed, Lewis told his brother Warren that Rostrevor (which overlooks Carlingford Lough) was his idea of Narnia.
As a child he would also holiday with his family in the little town of Castlerock, County Derry, It is here Lewis would have first experienced the magnificent Dunluce Castle and where the inspiration of Cair Paravel is believed to have taken shape.
As well as these sites, there are a number of activities to do and places to visit in Lewis’ home city of Belfast. By following the C.S Lewis Trail in the east of the city it is possible to discover some of these fascinating places for yourself. If travelling with a group and wanting to discover the roots of C.S Lewis, there is also a C.S Lewis tour, which takes in the main locations associated with C.S Lewis and his family.
One example of a place to visit is ‘The Searcher’ which is a statue based on the character of Digory Kirke who was “The Magician’s Nephew” in the story of Narnia. The statue shows Kirke (depicted as C.S Lewis himself as he was in 1919) opening the famous wardrobe in which Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy first enter Narnia from. The sculpture was created by Northern Ireland artist Ross Wilson who in his own words wanted to capture the “great ideas of sacrifice, redemption, victory, and freedom for the sons of Adam and the daughters of Eve” that lie at the heart of the Chronicles of Narnia.
If you also have the time to visit the beautiful Queen’s University Belfast, then you will be amazed at the C.S Lewis Reading Room situated in the library. Located in the tower area of Floor 1 of The McClay Library, you will discover a replica of the wardrobe used in the “The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe” which marks the entrance to the room. The reading area features glass engraved quotations from the author, and the carpets and central table are also based on Narnia themes.
Near to this cache is the Barbican Gate - the main entrance into Tollymore Forest Park. The gate-house which once stood just inside the gateway has since been demolished, and now this area is often used as an unofficial car-park by dog-walkers (or geocachers!).
All caches placed with the kind permission of the Tollymore Forest Park Ranger Service