It’s a commonly held belief in these parts that West Cork, despite being a tad on the remote side, has something to offer no matter what your interests are. take Oliver, 13. Rocket-fuelled by a summer-holiday diet of old space movies—2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Planet of the Apes and so on—he’s given up earlier plans to become a pirate and now intends to be an astronaut.
We’re taking his ambition seriously, partly because he reads and understands books with titles such as Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity and partly because he’s started to teach himself Russian, compulsory for members of the International space station, and is already saying things such as: (What is an astronaut’s favourite place on a computer?’ the answer being, of course, or ‘the space bar’).
You might well assume that there would be nothing available locally for a budding astronaut, but you would be wrong. In the little fishing village of schull (population 693), there is to be found Ireland’s only planetarium. tucked at the back of the school, it was donated to the community in 1989, for reasons that are not entirely clear, by a German industrialist.
Denne historien er fra September 05, 2018-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra September 05, 2018-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds
