Fair Head (09070985)

Fair Head (or Benmore) is perhaps the finest cliff in Northern Ireland. Its 100m vertical face of perfect dolerite is a distinctive feature of the skyline when looking eastwards from Ballycastle. Near the summit of the cliff are two small loughs. The one in my photograph here is known as Lough Dhu (The Black Lough). A legend tells how a ghostly devil-horse lives under the waters and takes the human form of a grey man when a mist rolls in from the sea. According to another story, Fairhead ws named from the tale of a beautiful fair-headed girl who once lived in a castle on Rathlin Island. A battle between two suitors led to one of them being mortally wounded. As he lay dying, he whispered to his servant to dance with the girl on the cliffs below the castle. The pair danced on the clifftop and before falling over it to their deaths. The body of the fair-headed maiden is said to have washed up on the mainland and this headland is now known as Fair Head.