NORTHERN DELIGHTS Lough Neagh, the largest freshwater lake in Britain
As you fly into Belfast, you get a glimpse of Northern Ireland’s natural beauty. The city straddles the River Lagan at the end of a wide sea lough, overlooked by rugged hills. It’s in stark contrast to Belfast’s docks, where two giant yellow gantry cranes nicknamed Samson and Goliath tower over the Harland and Wolff shipyards, emblems of an industrial heritage that once gave birth to the Titanic. The waterfront nearby has been transformed into a shiny modern district of film studios, museums and entertainment venues, and elsewhere new buildings are gradually tempering the city’s uneasy architectural mix of Victorian grandeur and gritty concrete.
Beyond the city lies a soft landscape of perpetually lush fields, hills and mountains. This is dairy and livestock country, bounded on two sides by waters rich in seafood.