The 18th and latest leaflet in the "A wee bit of maritime history … series, Privateers in the 1700s is now available free from shops in Portaferry and Strangford and also via Downloads on this website.

Read more: New Leaflet Available: Privateers in the 1700s

The link below contains a spreadsheet (Excel Format) of books available to view within the Jim Blaney Memorial Archive, located at The Rope Walk.

Click here to download

This Friday, 6th January 2023 - TALK: “Three Years Building Boats in the Basque Region by Orlagh Thompson

By January Orlagh will be halfway through her third and final year learning the skills of traditional boatbuilding at Albaoloa, the “Sea Factory of the Basques" in northern Spain.  How can you resist?

See our Event Info page for more details.

"South till the butter melts and turn right"; A voyage from here to the Cape Verdes, to Barbados and through the Caribbean to Cuba, then up the Eastern US seaboard and from Belfast Maine to Nova Scotia before returning down to Florida, out to the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands and Puerto Rico. Back down through the Caribbean to  Grenada and the ABC islands before returning to Puerto Rico and the Spanish and US Virgin Islands, then to Bermuda and the Azores, finally home to Ireland after Covid.  The voyages of Ian McCrum and the yacht "SHADOWMERE", a 1979 Hallberg Rassy 41 foot ketch.