As my husband travels a lot with work he usually likes to relax at home over the weekend and we don’t tend to go far. I hate shopping when it’s busy so we usually avoid town and head to the garden centre for a late breakfast or an early lunch.  This weekend I decided to make a picnic and we went a run down the coast to the beautiful little village of Portballintrae.

Portballintrae is a beautiful seaside village in Co Antrim 2 miles west of the Giant’s Causeway and we parked the car and walked down the steps to the sheltered little beach.  We put our picnic rug down and I had brought my tray from Laura Ashley to set all the food on as I’m not keen on sandwiches with a side serving of crunchy sand!

After our picnic we took a walk round the little harbour. As my husband is from a beautiful little fishing village called Cullen in the  North of Scotland and the first years of our married life were spent in a little village called Portknockie we are always drawn to pretty little harbours. Our first house was in a very beautiful location, it was the Old Post Office in Portknockie and looked right over the harbour which was lovely in good weather but extremely nerve wracking in a Force 9 gale when my husband was 100 miles out in the North Sea on the family fishing boat. It was quite lonely at times being newly married in a new area (I’m from Ayrshire which is around 250 miles south) and my husbands job as a North Sea fisherman took him away from home every week from a Sunday till Friday. So although I was living in such a beautiful location I probably didn’t enjoy it as much as I should have, although there were always lots of friends and family coming to stay to keep me company which was great!

Pics above show the stunning view from my kitchen window and it was lovely for swimming in summer. Pic below is of my daughter Rebecca standing outside our house prob around 26 years ago!! The house is now used as a holiday let and I’m very tempted to go back in time and book a weeks holiday there! 

Few more pics below of our time in our Portknockie house, it’s funny looking at these old pics as I can see how like Rebecca my little granddaughter Lydia is. And obviously my love of florals goes way back looking at the wallpaper and bedding!!

So Portballintrae is a little bit similar to Portknockie in some ways and we always enjoy a visit there. Both places are spectacular when the sun is setting and I snapped this pic below one other night we were there.

We had a really lovely day and I’d definitely recommend a visit there if you’re on holiday in N Ireland.

Thanks for reading!

Louise xxx