0:00:05 > 0:00:09The Antrim Coast Road - an unrivalled feat of engineering
0:00:09 > 0:00:13that defines not only the geography of Northeast Ulster,
0:00:13 > 0:00:15but its people.
0:00:21 > 0:00:23The locals here do say if you are stopping and you want
0:00:23 > 0:00:26to give someone a lift, they do say, instead of saying,
0:00:26 > 0:00:28"Do you want a lift?" a lot of people would say,
0:00:28 > 0:00:30"Do you want a sail?"
0:00:30 > 0:00:34Historically, the people of the remote west of Scotland and parts
0:00:34 > 0:00:38of East Antrim effectively lived as one community.
0:00:38 > 0:00:43Known as Dalriada, the inhabitants of this ancient kingdom
0:00:43 > 0:00:49depended on the sea for travel, trade, communication and food.
0:00:49 > 0:00:50The people of the Glens of Antrim
0:00:50 > 0:00:53and the people of the Mull of Kintyre just over there,
0:00:53 > 0:00:55they're basically the same people.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59It's not as if the Irish moved to Scotland or the Scottish moved
0:00:59 > 0:01:02to Ireland - we were, and in many ways are, the same people.
0:01:06 > 0:01:12Then, in 1832, a remarkable Scotsman changed everything.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20He just fits the character of a Scot.
0:01:20 > 0:01:26At the time, a man of parts, a man of "pairts", as we say.
0:01:28 > 0:01:32William Bald was a prodigious talent. A skilled cartographer,
0:01:32 > 0:01:36he mapped the Western Isles of Scotland at 16.
0:01:36 > 0:01:39His career progressed to engineering,
0:01:39 > 0:01:42building bridges, harbours and roads.
0:01:42 > 0:01:46However, it was along the quiet shores of County Antrim
0:01:46 > 0:01:49that he would produce his masterpiece.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52William was commissioned to build a road for the people of the Glens
0:01:52 > 0:01:56and help provide access to this place apart.
0:01:57 > 0:02:00Other engineers proposed complex bridges and structures to tackle
0:02:00 > 0:02:04access into the Glens, but William looked to the coast.
0:02:05 > 0:02:10It must have been a huge job, even to design the new road.
0:02:16 > 0:02:21And a community so heavily reliant on the sea changed forever.
0:02:37 > 0:02:39Long before the Antrim Coast Road was conceived,
0:02:39 > 0:02:41the communities of the Glens of Antrim
0:02:41 > 0:02:45and the western regions of Scotland lived as one.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50The kingdom of Dalriada, as it was known,
0:02:50 > 0:02:52flourished from the third century AD.
0:02:53 > 0:02:55It stretched from the mouth of the River Bush
0:02:55 > 0:02:57to Glynn, just south of Larne in Antrim,
0:02:57 > 0:03:02to Kintyre, the Western Isles and parts of Argyll in Scotland.
0:03:05 > 0:03:09There always has been a lot of contact between this part of Ireland
0:03:09 > 0:03:11and the West of Scotland,
0:03:11 > 0:03:15and that's naturally, simply because of the close distance.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19And in fact, Scotland gets its name from the Scoti, which were a tribe
0:03:19 > 0:03:23from this area, and they were the people who settled in Argyll,
0:03:23 > 0:03:26and they eventually became Dalriada,
0:03:26 > 0:03:29and that eventually became the Kingdom of Scotland.
0:03:29 > 0:03:31North Antrim, for example,
0:03:31 > 0:03:33is bounded by mountains
0:03:33 > 0:03:34on the landward side.
0:03:34 > 0:03:39And Argyll in Scotland is bounded by mountains on the landward side.
0:03:39 > 0:03:43And it was extremely difficult to traverse those mountains.
0:03:43 > 0:03:47In Scotland, it would take at least three days on horseback
0:03:47 > 0:03:49to get to the other side of the Grampian Mountains.
0:03:51 > 0:03:53So the sea was the highway -
0:03:53 > 0:03:57it was by sea that people connected with each other.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00If you go out into the middle of the sea there,
0:04:00 > 0:04:04you discover that you're surrounded, if you like, by bits of land.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07You look at the horizon, there's this ever-changing necklace
0:04:07 > 0:04:11of islands and headlands and mountains all around you.
0:04:11 > 0:04:14And that was, if you like, the community.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20WOMAN RECITES:
0:04:38 > 0:04:41This maritime kingdom evolved over centuries,
0:04:41 > 0:04:43as various rebellions and invasions
0:04:43 > 0:04:46changed the nature of rule.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49However, in the 12th century, a great warlord
0:04:49 > 0:04:53gave chase to the Norsemen and became King of the Isles.
0:04:53 > 0:04:58His descendants went on to become the Lords of the Isles
0:04:58 > 0:05:02and to make their presence felt on both sides of the Irish Sea.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05The southern Hebrides in Scotland,
0:05:05 > 0:05:11a dynasty appeared as the Viking influence began to wane.
0:05:11 > 0:05:15It was a kind of Gaelicised Viking dynasty,
0:05:15 > 0:05:17led by a man called Somerled.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20And he was the ancestor of the McDonnells.
0:05:21 > 0:05:25That was really the golden period of Dalriada,
0:05:25 > 0:05:28that's the time of the Lord of the Isles.
0:05:28 > 0:05:30And the McDonnells were the premier family,
0:05:30 > 0:05:32both in the West of Scotland and over here.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36In those days, and we're talking really between
0:05:36 > 0:05:40about the 12th century up to the 17th century,
0:05:40 > 0:05:43this area was very significant.
0:05:43 > 0:05:47I always find it fascinating that this area, if you look at the maps,
0:05:47 > 0:05:49the Glens and the West of Scotland look remote,
0:05:49 > 0:05:51but if you turn the British Isles on their side,
0:05:51 > 0:05:55you suddenly find that we are in the middle of the United Kingdom,
0:05:55 > 0:05:57in the middle of Great Britain,
0:05:57 > 0:06:00so Northern Ireland actually isn't on the outskirts,
0:06:00 > 0:06:03it's right in the middle of this major, major route.
0:06:10 > 0:06:15This highway across the narrow sea between East Antrim and Scotland
0:06:15 > 0:06:18allowed the people to travel back and forth.
0:06:18 > 0:06:22As centuries passed and the industrial age dawned,
0:06:22 > 0:06:27new methods of travel and communication became essential.
0:06:28 > 0:06:32In 1831, an Office of Public Works was established
0:06:32 > 0:06:36to improve access into remote areas in Ireland.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39One place in particular came under scrutiny -
0:06:39 > 0:06:42the settlements and villages along the East Coast of Antrim,
0:06:42 > 0:06:45cut off from one another and the rest of the country
0:06:45 > 0:06:47by the mighty glens.
0:06:48 > 0:06:52One of the most prolific engineers of the time was a Scot
0:06:52 > 0:06:55called William Bald, and in 1832,
0:06:55 > 0:06:58he embarked on an amazing journey
0:06:58 > 0:07:01to build a road that would open up the Glens
0:07:01 > 0:07:05and ultimately change the face of this area forever.
0:07:11 > 0:07:15Visiting Northern Ireland for the first time, Andrea Bald
0:07:15 > 0:07:20and her son Levi have travelled over 11,000 miles from New Zealand
0:07:20 > 0:07:23to experience the legacy of their pioneering ancestor.
0:07:25 > 0:07:27With a keen interest in her family history,
0:07:27 > 0:07:30Andrea is determined to discover all she can
0:07:30 > 0:07:33about her great-great-great grandfather, William Bald.
0:07:35 > 0:07:3813, 14 years ago, my dad started researching.
0:07:38 > 0:07:40He'd been told by his father
0:07:40 > 0:07:43something about, "My grandad built the Antrim Coast Road."
0:07:43 > 0:07:46But Dad didn't know his name or anything,
0:07:46 > 0:07:48and so Dad started looking into it and he went,
0:07:48 > 0:07:51"Ah! My father wasn't telling porkies, it's true!"
0:08:03 > 0:08:07I was looking at some notes recently and I'd written that
0:08:07 > 0:08:10my father's grandfather was a civil engineer, and by that time,
0:08:10 > 0:08:14I'd done an engineering degree and so I wrote, "Civil engineer, wow!"
0:08:14 > 0:08:18And so then finding out the connection back to William,
0:08:18 > 0:08:20it was just remarkable, it was like...
0:08:20 > 0:08:24And Dad goes, "There must be an engineering gene or something."
0:08:27 > 0:08:29With engineering in her blood,
0:08:29 > 0:08:33Andrea has a special appreciation for William's achievements.
0:08:36 > 0:08:37Look.
0:08:38 > 0:08:41- What is that?- That's a...
0:08:41 > 0:08:43I don't think you'd call it a tunnel. An arch?
0:08:49 > 0:08:52But very little of William's story is known,
0:08:52 > 0:08:55and Andrea is keen to connect with anyone
0:08:55 > 0:08:58who can help her discover more about her ancestor.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01He's described sometimes as being quite impetuous, but other times
0:09:01 > 0:09:03as being very cultured and knowledgeable
0:09:03 > 0:09:05and generous with his knowledge and things like that.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08And that starts to bring to life
0:09:08 > 0:09:10what he must have been like as a person.
0:09:10 > 0:09:13So, yeah, a huge sense of pride, really.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16This is the Antrim Coast Road, and we're on it!
0:09:16 > 0:09:20Oh, my goodness! Yeah! Just amazing.
0:09:21 > 0:09:25Look, so, see up there, how steep that is,
0:09:25 > 0:09:28so you just wouldn't have been able to get around here.
0:09:31 > 0:09:36Andrea is in Glenarm to have a chat with local historian Iain Bradley,
0:09:36 > 0:09:39who is particularly interested in how and why
0:09:39 > 0:09:41the coast road came to be built.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44There are some people say it was built as a military road,
0:09:44 > 0:09:48because after the 1798 rising, they felt they had to subdue the Irish,
0:09:48 > 0:09:50the same as they'd done in Scotland after the '45 rising.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53- Yes.- They built the military roads in Scotland.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56But they built them immediately after '45 in Scotland.
0:09:56 > 0:09:57Here, this was 30 years later,
0:09:57 > 0:10:00so I don't believe it was built as a military road.
0:10:00 > 0:10:03- I think it was just for commerce. - But there's no records of
0:10:03 > 0:10:06calls for it to be built or anything like that?
0:10:06 > 0:10:09Well, there was always people looking for it to be built.
0:10:09 > 0:10:11The local villagers
0:10:11 > 0:10:14would have complained about how difficult it was.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17It was really quite notorious from this bit on,
0:10:17 > 0:10:21there was a very, very steep path here. One in four of a gradient.
0:10:21 > 0:10:24- Trying to get up that with a horse and cart...- Yeah.
0:10:24 > 0:10:28And it wasn't tarmacked. It would be loose stones.
0:10:28 > 0:10:31And maybe the rain coming down, the muck coming down,
0:10:31 > 0:10:33it really was not very nice.
0:10:34 > 0:10:37The fact that the Earls of Antrim lived in Glenarm
0:10:37 > 0:10:40and they have a castle there would have influenced things.
0:10:40 > 0:10:42- Right. Made it a bit more important.- Yes.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45The Earl of Antrim would have a lot of influence in the building
0:10:45 > 0:10:48- of the road, or getting the money for that.- Yep.
0:10:48 > 0:10:53To me, given that the coast wasn't accessible, but this road was,
0:10:53 > 0:10:57it must've been a huge job even to design the new road,
0:10:57 > 0:11:00because how would you get to the bits
0:11:00 > 0:11:01that you needed to design around?
0:11:01 > 0:11:04Yes, it would've been quite difficult. I don't know if they
0:11:04 > 0:11:07came in by boat or just scrambled up over the rock faces and that.
0:11:07 > 0:11:09Parts of the road were very simple to build.
0:11:09 > 0:11:11- Because they were already flat.- Yes.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14But then there were headlands and they had to blast the rocks.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17There was a lot of blasting, and of course, the gunpowder they used
0:11:17 > 0:11:20- in those days was not as effective as nowadays.- No.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23It wasn't as stable and there was a lot of problems, I'm sure.
0:11:25 > 0:11:30Other places, there was sliding clay, a sort of blue, heavy clay,
0:11:30 > 0:11:33almost like cement, that was always wet and it was always sliding down.
0:11:33 > 0:11:35And it's sliding to this day.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38As I understand it, the road was done in a series of places,
0:11:38 > 0:11:42because they've done bits and then the idea was to join them all up.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45And of course there were certain places were very hard to join up.
0:11:45 > 0:11:48- Yes.- And of course, that's where his expertise would have come in.- Yes.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51But what's really struck me in the last couple of days
0:11:51 > 0:11:54is that there is a bunch of people up here
0:11:54 > 0:11:58that know all about William Bald, much more than we ever have!
0:11:58 > 0:12:01- "Hang on a minute!" - He had a great influence on us,
0:12:01 > 0:12:03because he opened up the Glens completely.
0:12:05 > 0:12:08The Antrim Coast Road allowed new settlers
0:12:08 > 0:12:11to make their homes in the Glens of Antrim,
0:12:11 > 0:12:15an area which for centuries had been dominated by native Irish
0:12:15 > 0:12:18and descendants of the clans of Dalriada.
0:12:18 > 0:12:22From the late Middle Ages, local Gaelic lords
0:12:22 > 0:12:23had employed Gall Og Liagh,
0:12:23 > 0:12:26which literally means "young foreign warriors",
0:12:26 > 0:12:29later anglicised as gallowglasses.
0:12:30 > 0:12:33These mercenary soldiers often settled in Ireland
0:12:33 > 0:12:36and their names can still be found to this day.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40One of the greatest of these clans is the McDonnells,
0:12:40 > 0:12:42the former Lords of the Isles,
0:12:42 > 0:12:46who became the Earls of Antrim in the 17th century.
0:12:46 > 0:12:50Today, they still live in their ancestral home, Glenarm Castle.
0:12:52 > 0:12:56Hector McDonnell, brother of the present Earl of Antrim,
0:12:56 > 0:12:58is an acclaimed realist painter.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01Hector is fascinated by his family's legacy.
0:13:02 > 0:13:04My historical interest is really
0:13:04 > 0:13:08entirely the result of my parents being enormous storytellers.
0:13:08 > 0:13:14I just was brought up to sort of be intoxicated by these tales.
0:13:14 > 0:13:18And I remember my tutor at Oxford looked at me rather sadly and said,
0:13:18 > 0:13:22"The one thing I would advise you, is when it comes to your exams,
0:13:22 > 0:13:24"don't answer any Irish questions."
0:13:26 > 0:13:31There was too much wonderful fiction in my head
0:13:31 > 0:13:36for anything I wrote on that subject to be of any value whatsoever.
0:13:39 > 0:13:44Well, there are all sorts of curious legacies of the McDonnell clan here.
0:13:44 > 0:13:45I mean, apart from the fact
0:13:45 > 0:13:48that there are an awful lot of McDonnells about the place,
0:13:48 > 0:13:50there are also all these families
0:13:50 > 0:13:54which we brought in by one means or another.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57I mean, like these people from the Western Isles who came in
0:13:57 > 0:14:01in the 16th century, like the McAllisters and McNeills
0:14:01 > 0:14:03and other families like that.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08The nature of the peopling of the Glens
0:14:08 > 0:14:11owes an enormous amount to my family.
0:14:12 > 0:14:18Also, because they survived as a family in the 17th century,
0:14:18 > 0:14:20that they knew how to stay on the ground
0:14:20 > 0:14:24and keep things going, which is an extreme achievement.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28It meant that the population was never moved off,
0:14:28 > 0:14:31it meant that the people who were here stayed here.
0:14:31 > 0:14:33And that was an enormous achievement -
0:14:33 > 0:14:36unlike many places in the North of Ireland,
0:14:36 > 0:14:37where there has been disruption
0:14:37 > 0:14:40through one lot of people being kicked out and other people going,
0:14:40 > 0:14:43that does not seem to have happened here.
0:14:46 > 0:14:48The descendants of these early clans
0:14:48 > 0:14:52and mercenary warriors are proud of their colourful history.
0:14:52 > 0:14:57And that close sense of kinship and community continues to this day.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02There were little ports all round the coastline here
0:15:02 > 0:15:05and I suppose the people used them for their own communities.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10The locals here do say, if you are stopping and you want
0:15:10 > 0:15:12to give somebody a lift, they do say, instead of saying,
0:15:12 > 0:15:13"Do you want a lift?"
0:15:13 > 0:15:15a lot of people would say, "Do you want a sail?"
0:15:15 > 0:15:18And that goes back to those times and those days,
0:15:18 > 0:15:21that everybody was rowing about in their little boat, or sailing about.
0:15:27 > 0:15:29That's the Mull of Kintyre that we can see there,
0:15:29 > 0:15:32so you are only about 17 miles from the Mull of Kintyre here.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35But, yeah, a good day, you can see right down into Argyll
0:15:35 > 0:15:37and you can see right up there into Islay,
0:15:37 > 0:15:40the Inner Hebrides, if it's a north wind blowing and it's a clear day.
0:15:44 > 0:15:46An awful lot of the people here are of Scottish descent.
0:15:46 > 0:15:48We are McAllisters and we are originally
0:15:48 > 0:15:50from a place called the Loop in Scotland.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53So we're not really originally Irish, as such,
0:15:53 > 0:15:56although we've been here for hundreds of years.
0:15:56 > 0:15:58You have a lot of McDonnells in Glenariff,
0:15:58 > 0:16:02and they originally came from Scotland as well.
0:16:02 > 0:16:06They came over here to try and throw the McQuillans off the Crown.
0:16:06 > 0:16:11We came over to help them as, I suppose, warriors,
0:16:11 > 0:16:14or whatever you called people back in those days.
0:16:17 > 0:16:19I think I would like a younger generation to grow up here,
0:16:19 > 0:16:21but it's very hard to get houses here.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24Houses here are very expensive.
0:16:24 > 0:16:29And that's the difficult task. If I could get somewhere to build a house
0:16:29 > 0:16:31or buy something like that round here, close to here,
0:16:31 > 0:16:33you probably would, yeah.
0:16:34 > 0:16:36But land in the Glens is very expensive, as are houses.
0:16:38 > 0:16:40Because, I suppose, it's so scenic and it looks nice
0:16:40 > 0:16:42and people like to come for their holidays,
0:16:42 > 0:16:45so then you get people with a lot of money
0:16:45 > 0:16:48coming out of places like Belfast etc, snapping up the houses
0:16:48 > 0:16:50and then it leaves it more difficult for the local person.
0:16:55 > 0:16:58There have been McAuleys in the Glens pretty well for as long as
0:16:58 > 0:17:00there have been people in them.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04It's probably the most common and popular name in the Glens,
0:17:04 > 0:17:08but it goes back into pretty well prehistory.
0:17:08 > 0:17:10They did do a bit of DNA testing
0:17:10 > 0:17:15and they are all from pretty well the same DNA base.
0:17:17 > 0:17:23And McAuleys in Scotland also share the same DNA.
0:17:25 > 0:17:29I wouldn't differentiate between Scots and Irish here at all -
0:17:29 > 0:17:32they're the same people on either side of the Sea of Moyle.
0:17:32 > 0:17:35The same clans, they intermarried,
0:17:35 > 0:17:39and they toed and froed all the time.
0:17:44 > 0:17:48One thing about farming is it saves a lot on gym fees.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51You get quite a bit of exercise.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58It's funny the way you say the McAuleys come from Scotland.
0:17:58 > 0:18:04The clans here anyway, the Scoti, went across and established
0:18:04 > 0:18:06the Kingdom of Dalriada here in the Glens
0:18:06 > 0:18:08and in the Western Isles of Scotland.
0:18:08 > 0:18:11And they brought the language over with them - Gay-lic or Gah-lic,
0:18:11 > 0:18:13they're just dialects of one another.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16The Gaelic supplanted the previous language in Scotland,
0:18:16 > 0:18:20which was Pictish. Which was probably a Celtic language
0:18:20 > 0:18:25similar to what is now Welsh or Cornish or Breton in France.
0:18:26 > 0:18:29There's P-Celtic and Q-Celtic.
0:18:30 > 0:18:35Gaelic is Q-Celtic and Welsh is P-Celtic.
0:18:35 > 0:18:40Essentially, the word for "head" in Gaelic
0:18:40 > 0:18:42is "ceann", which is a Q sound,
0:18:42 > 0:18:44and in Welsh, it is "pen",
0:18:44 > 0:18:47so that's why they call one P-Celtic and the other Q.
0:18:50 > 0:18:54But before the coast road, travel between the Glens
0:18:54 > 0:18:59and the Western Islands and the West of Scotland was all by boat.
0:18:59 > 0:19:02The Sea of Moyle was how we travelled around.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12# I was told we'd cruise the seas for American gold
0:19:12 > 0:19:15# We'd fire no guns, shed no tears
0:19:15 > 0:19:18# Now I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier
0:19:18 > 0:19:22# The last of Barrett's Privateers
0:19:22 > 0:19:25# So here I lay in me 23rd year
0:19:25 > 0:19:28# I wish I was in Sherbrooke now
0:19:28 > 0:19:31# It's been six years since we sailed away
0:19:31 > 0:19:33# And I just made Halifax yesterday
0:19:33 > 0:19:35# God damn them all
0:19:35 > 0:19:38# I was told we'd cruise the seas for American gold
0:19:38 > 0:19:41# We'd fire no guns, shed no tears
0:19:41 > 0:19:44# I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier
0:19:44 > 0:19:47# The last of Barrett's Privateers
0:19:47 > 0:19:48# God damn them all
0:19:48 > 0:19:51# I was told we'd cruise the seas for American gold
0:19:51 > 0:19:55# We'd fire no guns, shed no tears
0:19:55 > 0:19:59# I'm a broken man on a Halifax pi-i-ier
0:19:59 > 0:20:05# The last of Barrett's Privateers. #
0:20:05 > 0:20:08APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
0:20:14 > 0:20:17This is the Meeting House at Cairncastle, in Mattie Moore's Pub.
0:20:17 > 0:20:22I've been coming here since I was 17, playing music, of and on.
0:20:22 > 0:20:27So there's been a session here for nearly four decades, that I know of.
0:20:27 > 0:20:30Maybe earlier, I don't know, but certainly there's been pub music
0:20:30 > 0:20:32going on here for 40 years.
0:20:32 > 0:20:36We hear a lot of talk about the Ulster Scots tradition, but, I mean,
0:20:36 > 0:20:42long before Ulster Scots was ever sort of mentioned, in this pub,
0:20:42 > 0:20:44I heard lots of Scottish songs and Irish songs,
0:20:44 > 0:20:46there was a mixture of everything.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50But I guess with the technological age, the internet and so on,
0:20:50 > 0:20:52you can get anything here.
0:20:52 > 0:20:55We play a selection of all kinds of genres of music.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58I think it's fair to say we're all just music lovers
0:20:58 > 0:21:00and we don't like to pigeonhole anything, you know?
0:21:04 > 0:21:07WOMAN RECITES:
0:21:35 > 0:21:39Iain Bradley has a keen interest in genealogy and has discovered
0:21:39 > 0:21:43that his ancestors are of both Irish and Scottish descent.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51The narrow sea linked the two areas,
0:21:51 > 0:21:53with people travelling over and back on a daily basis.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59The first of my family that came to Glenarm
0:21:59 > 0:22:01would have been here just about the time of the famine,
0:22:01 > 0:22:03probably at the height of the famine.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07There was a Sarah Hunter, she had been born in Scotland
0:22:07 > 0:22:11in a place called St Quivox, just outside Ayr.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14And her father was Irish, from Ballycarry.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19By the 1840s, the time of the famine,
0:22:19 > 0:22:23she was appointed as a sewing agent in Glenarm.
0:22:25 > 0:22:29Family tradition here has it that Lady Antrim was instrumental
0:22:29 > 0:22:32in bringing my great-great- grandmother here to Glenarm.
0:22:32 > 0:22:35She wanted an industry for her tenants.
0:22:35 > 0:22:39A sewing agent was a person who was involved in the flowering trade,
0:22:39 > 0:22:42as it was called.
0:22:42 > 0:22:47Flowering was a process that was developed in Ayrshire in the 1820s.
0:22:47 > 0:22:53It involved satin thread being woven onto white muslin,
0:22:53 > 0:22:57and the muslin was already marked out with a blue dye.
0:22:57 > 0:23:00And it was given out to these girls and young women
0:23:00 > 0:23:03and they did this embroidery.
0:23:03 > 0:23:05It would be the only work, really,
0:23:05 > 0:23:07for young girls in the village at that time.
0:23:07 > 0:23:11And the girls were as young as 11 and usually up to about 22.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15There's over 50 girls from the village employed,
0:23:15 > 0:23:19according to the 1851 Census, in that work.
0:23:19 > 0:23:23Andrea Bald is starting to realise
0:23:23 > 0:23:26the impact that William's road has had.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32- A lot of fresh blood would have come in. Fresh families.- Yep.
0:23:32 > 0:23:37For different reasons, you know. Obviously, in the 1830s,
0:23:37 > 0:23:39when the road was built, you were getting, the police force
0:23:39 > 0:23:41was set up in Ireland, so the police
0:23:41 > 0:23:43would be moved in from other counties.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46And the schools started, the National School system,
0:23:46 > 0:23:48and there would be teachers moving in,
0:23:48 > 0:23:51so you had this intermingling, which was good.
0:23:52 > 0:23:56- You'd a lot of fresh blood, fresh ideas and fresh families.- Mmm. Mmm.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04Of course, the coast road was very important to our family,
0:24:04 > 0:24:06because that's how we came to the Glens.
0:24:06 > 0:24:09- Yes.- My ancestors came in from County Down and from Scotland.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12And they landed in Ballycarry and then moved up the way.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15They came up through Larne and then onto Glenarm.
0:24:15 > 0:24:17And I wonder if they'd ever have managed it
0:24:17 > 0:24:19if they'd had to come over this hill!
0:24:23 > 0:24:26I guess I... I knew
0:24:26 > 0:24:31about the enormity of the difficulty of making the road,
0:24:31 > 0:24:35but hearing it from a local,
0:24:35 > 0:24:37it's not just knowing, it's like,
0:24:37 > 0:24:41wow, feeling the enormity of the difficulty.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46And the other thing is, the real sense of how important it is
0:24:46 > 0:24:51to the community, how it's not just a convenient road,
0:24:51 > 0:24:54it really changed the lives of the community here,
0:24:54 > 0:24:56I think is really what struck me.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18It's lambing season for Carnlough farmer Charlie McAuley.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21With the year-round pressures of running a farm,
0:25:21 > 0:25:23community support is vitally important.
0:25:26 > 0:25:31I do need help, but most of the farmers round here...
0:25:33 > 0:25:36..keep in touch with mobile phone and if you need help,
0:25:36 > 0:25:39you just ring some of my neighbours
0:25:39 > 0:25:42and they'll come down and help me.
0:25:42 > 0:25:46It's always actually been the same, even back in the old days
0:25:46 > 0:25:52when you were making hay, everybody bailed in to help everyone else.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55I suppose it's part of what makes the country the country.
0:25:55 > 0:26:00Everyone can pretty well turn their hand to pretty well anything.
0:26:00 > 0:26:02You have to be able to do a bit of everything.
0:26:02 > 0:26:09And it's good to get off and help someone else anyway,
0:26:09 > 0:26:11and have a bit of a yarn and socialise.
0:26:11 > 0:26:13We spend a lot of time drinking tea.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18MUSIC PLAYS
0:26:18 > 0:26:19- WOMAN:- Swing!
0:26:26 > 0:26:28Ladies in!
0:26:28 > 0:26:31This is our regular set dancing night, we have it on a Thursday,
0:26:31 > 0:26:33from the beginning of October
0:26:33 > 0:26:34until about the end of April,
0:26:34 > 0:26:36beginning of May.
0:26:36 > 0:26:38So it's not a class, we just meet
0:26:38 > 0:26:41and dance and have a chat and catch up with people.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44And have a few drinky poos and nibbles.
0:26:47 > 0:26:51We've been running for about... Since about 2000.
0:26:51 > 0:26:54The upstairs in the pub that we used to go to,
0:26:54 > 0:26:56it was turned into a restaurant,
0:26:56 > 0:27:00so we had to get another venue and we decided we'd do it in the house.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06Mind you, we used to go round the houses earlier,
0:27:06 > 0:27:11maybe about 20 years ago, but then that kind of dropped out of use.
0:27:11 > 0:27:14So we're just going back to what we were.
0:27:14 > 0:27:16Swing your own!
0:27:16 > 0:27:19We enjoy it, we like having our friends in
0:27:19 > 0:27:23and it's more for the social gathering and the yarn,
0:27:23 > 0:27:26and the drinks. The dancing's good, I think, exercise too,
0:27:26 > 0:27:28and it's a good excuse for a meeting up.
0:27:30 > 0:27:33It's a way of connecting with people.
0:27:33 > 0:27:36Out of dancing and meeting together here, you make contacts
0:27:36 > 0:27:38and then you make strong friendships.
0:27:39 > 0:27:40And people enjoy it.
0:27:40 > 0:27:43And I think they seemed to enjoy it more when it's here in the house
0:27:43 > 0:27:46rather than when we had it in a room in a pub.
0:27:46 > 0:27:47House!
0:27:56 > 0:27:58APPLAUSE
0:28:03 > 0:28:06Life for the communities of the Glens has changed.
0:28:06 > 0:28:09And William Bald's road was certainly a catalyst.
0:28:09 > 0:28:11But with no heavy machinery
0:28:11 > 0:28:15and very few resources, how was it built?
0:28:15 > 0:28:16It's quite mind-boggling,
0:28:16 > 0:28:19how these men and the engineers,
0:28:19 > 0:28:22William Bald and his colleagues,
0:28:22 > 0:28:24how they even dreamt up this idea
0:28:24 > 0:28:27of putting the road here in the first place.