A Spartan Hero

Visiting Northern Ireland again to catch up with the wee grandsons we approached our George's house from an unfamiliar direction. On a twisty narrow road in the middle of nowhere we came across this small unprepossessing church. It's not of particular architectural merit compared with many we've seen lately and it's not of recent vintage being was built in 1755 by a Moravian priest who needed somewhere for his flock of 80 parishioners. The nascent Moravian congregation dwindled however and, by 1834, the church was in a poor state of repair. Enter Basil Zula, a senior army officer from the ancient Greek area formerly known as Sparta, he was on the run from the Turks following a 19th century Greek revolution. Basil was lucky enough to meet a young Irish girl who could converse in Greek. The Irish girl Ann, was a Moravian worshipper and she and Basil took on the task of rebuilding the church. What's more Basil married Ann, he was ordained a minister and the congregation thrived - it's still going strong and we watched some of the parishioners arriving on this fine Sunday morning. Back in the 19th century Basil had clearly not shaken off his concern that the Turks might come after him even in this remote  part of Northern Ireland as he incorporated secret passageways and hiding places in the church and attached rectory. Furthermore in his spare time Basil built a series of impressive earthworks  between the roadside and the church buildings. This was what caught our eye as we were driving past. This curious arrangement consists of mounds around 15 feet high with valleys and bridges connecting them - these represented the landscape where the ancient Battle of Thermoplyae was played out. This was clearly a scale model but Basil must have looked wistfully out of his window and imagined the mighty tussle taking place!

300 Spartans held back the might of the Persian army

On our visits to Northern Ireland we always aim to go for a parkrun that we've not done before and over the years we've ticked off most of the events in the Belfast area. We've done the attractive sounding locations such as Stormont and Hillsborough Forest and we're now picking out the remaining few. Orangefield Park didn't sound too exciting but it had to be done. I knew it was in a fairly run down area of the city and as we approached it things looked a bit grim. However we were pleasantly surprised by the extent of the parkland we found between the old housing estates. The route, as shown on the map, weaves around the undulating Orangefield and Greenside parks which are part of a 'greenway' which links the city centre to the outer suburbs allowing walkers and cyclists to roam on a traffic free corridor. And so at 9 am an enthusiastic crowd of just over 100 made their way round the course. A fine way to start the weekend!