Welcome to the Rudloe and environs website.

Here you will find news, articles and photos of an area that straddles the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in north-west Wiltshire.

Contributions in the form of articles or photos are welcome. Even those with completely contrary views to mine!

Thanks to the website builder 1&1 and Rob Brown for the original idea.

Rudloescene now, in January 2014, has a sister, academic rather than anarchic, website about Box history here: http://www.boxpeopleandplaces.co.uk/

It contains thoroughly professional, well-researched articles about Box and its people.

Contact rudloescene through the 'Contact' page.

This trip to Ireland primarily to support the Gibraltar team (including granddaughter Lucy) and the Ireland team (including niece Sophie) in an international U17 netball tournament in Antrim included stays in Belfast, Bushmills, Ballymena and Dublin. Gibraltar performed remarkably well, beating the Isle of Man and Switzerland whilst losing to France by only 7 goals in their final match. The title photo shows basalt columns at the Giant's Causeway close to Bushmills on Ireland's north coast.

The Giant's Causeway and Dunseverick Castle

Searching for ancestors in Glenarm cemeteries and around the environs of the castle

The Northern Ireland Coastal Route and the Gobbins feature in the gallery below. The 'No Gas Caverns' banner relates to the following (taken from the CrowdJustice website): 

We are a group of passionate local people in Islandmagee, Northern Ireland trying to protect our small community, natural environment and wildlife. Our hearts are broken and we feel let down by a government department whose duty it is to ensure our environment is protected and proper procedures are followed.

We are taking the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) to court with Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland, over the decision to allow 7 enormous gas caverns (each the size of a sky scraper) under the sea bed in Larne Lough. The decision to grant consent has implications for the whole of Northern Ireland, not only in terms of environmental impact but is contrary to UK Government commitments to phase out the use of natural gas.

I then shifted from the north to the south (Dublin) by train. The train stopped at Lisburn, Lurgan, Portadown, Newry, Dundalk and Drogheda BUT each announcement didn't include Drogheda in the list of stations and then when we were approaching Drogheda, the announcement was "The next station is ..." silence. What on earth was this all about?

The gallery below shows a couple of images of Dublin Castle interior and two associated museums, the Garda Museum and Revenue Museum. All a tad dry really but the piece de resistance in this area was the Chester Beatty Museum and Library. The museum contains a number of priceless objects, including one of the surviving volumes of the first illustrated Life of the Prophet and the Gospel of Mani, one of the last surviving Manichaean scriptures. Fascinating.

The famous Bewley's Theatre Cafe in Grafton Street is shown below. Interiors are blessed with stained glass windows and as its name suggests there is a theatre on the top floor. Shows usually start at 1pm; I had intended to catch one but was sightseeing elsewhere.

Photos of St Stephen's Green follow. The green played a not insignificant role in the 1916 Easter Rising when a group of rebels mainly of the Irish Citizen Army established a position there.

Nightlife at Temple Bar

If you were to land here from outer space, you wouldn't have a clue which country you were in - this is one of the most cosmopolitan cities I have ever visited. Hotel staff were Egyptian and Greek, restaurant waitress was Brazilian, theatre front of house was Mexican, staff at tourist information were East Asian and French and the welcome desk at Christchurch was staffed by Italians. The photo below shows 'John' and Cosmina (pronounced Quasmina), both Romanian, manager and waitress at the Shack Restaurant, Temple Bar. John has been here for twenty years and Cosmina for four. John is holding two of the books written by the restaurant's owner, David Ellis - these are Cooking with the Shack Restaurant and Flavours of Eire - a History of Irish Cuisine. I bought the first and they kindly gave me another book by David, Mind - Heart Connection.