Ballymena, meaning 'the middle townland' is a town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is part of the Borough of Mid and East Antrim.
The town is built on land given to the Adair family by King Charles I in 1626, with a right to hold two annual fairs and a free Saturday market in perpetuity. As of 2018, the Saturday market still runs. Ballymena is a shopping hub within Northern Ireland, and is home to Ballymena United F.C.
Ballymena incorporates an area of 632 square kilometres (244 square miles) and includes large villages such as Cullybackey, Galgorm, Ahoghill and Broughshane. It had a population of 29,551 people at the 2011 Census, making it the eighth largest town in Northern Ireland by population.
The Location
There is plenty of on-street parking available and Pay-As-You-Go carparks around the town.
Please take care when retrieving the cache as the area is likely to be busy with muggles and passing vehicles. Please return as found. You will need your own pen/pencil and there is no room for trackables.
The Cache
This is a short, 5-Staged multi-cache which should take you about 30 mins to complete by foot at a leisurely pace. At each stage you will have to retrieve answers from information boards or windows which will lead you to the final location. On the back of the information boards is a map, but these maps are the worst in creation so please stick to the waypoints listed on the cache page.
Stage 1: A Right Royal Market Town
A: The last weekly market was at Fair Hill. It closed in 19A9.
Stage 2: Legends of Rock and Roll
B: Number of letters in the type of bird minus 7.
Stage 3: The Home of Shopping
C: A positive cure for (number of characters minus 6).
Stage 4: Creativity Runs Through This Town
D: The number of Apples in the People’s Park.
E: The number of letters in the second Liam Nesson film mentioned.
Stage 5: Ballymena Town Hall, Museum and Arts Centre
F: Telephone – 028 2563 F900.
Checksum: A+B+C+D+E+F = 27
Final: N54 51.ABC W006 16.DEF
Geochecker
http://www.geochecker.com/index.php?code=40ad194fe2e6010924d86d00290253c4&action=check&wp=47433957514b52&name=42616c6c796d656e612048657921
Best wishes, warmest regards.
!!Congratulations to FluffyDucklet and SamaresSeekers on your Joint-F2F!!