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Ulster: A Journey through the Six Counties
In the early 1960s Robin Bryans, already a distinguished travel writer and brilliant autobiographer (as Robert Harbinson) returned home to Ulster. Here is the story of what he found -- the many changes but also the quintessential Ulster that remained the mountains and moor, lakes and trout streams, miles long gold and sandy beaches. Spiced with historical and literary anecdotes, Bryan's sentimental journey is recounted with characteristic wit and verve. 228 pages with index.
- GenresTravel
228 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
12 people want to read
About the author
Robin Bryans
19 books1 followerRobert Harbison Bryans, who wrote as Robin Bryans, Robert Harbinson and Donald Cameron, was born into a Protestant working-class family in the east of Belfast, Northern Ireland. He had an adventurous and colourful life which included working as a cabin boy on a Belfast Lough dredger, shepherding in the Western Highlands of Scotland, studying at Barry Religious College in South Wales, teaching in north Devon, working as a missionary in Canada, diamond prospecting in Canada and South America, hunting and trapping with the Blackfoot and Stony tribes in Canada, working in the theatre, lecturing in Venezuela, travelling to the Windward Islands, Copenhagen, Zurich and Asia, and being chased from Grenada by a hurricane.
As explained in Bryans' fourth autobiography, The Protégé, the aristocracy took him under their wing. This new role suited him admirably, transforming him from a Belfast backstreet boy into a 'lifelike toff'.
His twelve travel books included Gateway to the Khyber and Summer Saga: A Journey In Iceland, works full of detail, humour and fascinating anecdotes. For his later travel writing, he specialised in destinations influenced by Portuguese culture, as in Madeira, Pearl of the Atlantic, The Azores and Fanfare for Brazil.
In the sixties his attention turned to his native Northern Ireland and Ulster: A Journey Through The Six Counties revels in the local art and architecture, great country houses with their landscaped gardens, all of which he also pursued in many television programmes, for instance with Ulster Television, which became very popular.
He also wrote The Field of Sighing: A Highland Boyhood and The Sons of El Dorado under the pseudonym Donald Cameron.
Bryans' view on life was refreshingly different from that of any other author, and, combined with his wide-ranging geographic knowledge, and skill at drawing out the characters of the people he met, made his work a treasure trove of human documentary.
Classical musicians featured in Bryans' later life - he worked as an opera librettist and created a music school to encourage the work of composers, conductors and instrumentalists.
Bryans died in 2005, after a long illness, but in 2006, his writing was celebrated by no less than seventeen entries in The Ulster Anthology (Blackstaff Press, Belfast).
As explained in Bryans' fourth autobiography, The Protégé, the aristocracy took him under their wing. This new role suited him admirably, transforming him from a Belfast backstreet boy into a 'lifelike toff'.
His twelve travel books included Gateway to the Khyber and Summer Saga: A Journey In Iceland, works full of detail, humour and fascinating anecdotes. For his later travel writing, he specialised in destinations influenced by Portuguese culture, as in Madeira, Pearl of the Atlantic, The Azores and Fanfare for Brazil.
In the sixties his attention turned to his native Northern Ireland and Ulster: A Journey Through The Six Counties revels in the local art and architecture, great country houses with their landscaped gardens, all of which he also pursued in many television programmes, for instance with Ulster Television, which became very popular.
He also wrote The Field of Sighing: A Highland Boyhood and The Sons of El Dorado under the pseudonym Donald Cameron.
Bryans' view on life was refreshingly different from that of any other author, and, combined with his wide-ranging geographic knowledge, and skill at drawing out the characters of the people he met, made his work a treasure trove of human documentary.
Classical musicians featured in Bryans' later life - he worked as an opera librettist and created a music school to encourage the work of composers, conductors and instrumentalists.
Bryans died in 2005, after a long illness, but in 2006, his writing was celebrated by no less than seventeen entries in The Ulster Anthology (Blackstaff Press, Belfast).
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 5, 2015
Robin Bryans/Robert Harbinson was a gifted writer. He was born in Belfast in 1928 and died in 2005. During his lifetime, he knew many of the artists and literary figures that appear in his book. His friendship with Louis MacNeice, was notable for me being a huge fan of MacNeice.
I hesitate calling this a travel book because it is as full of historical detail as it is about places in Ulster. The details Bryans provides about history and known Ulster personages make this hard to categorize as a travel book. On the other hand, what is a place without details of the people who have lived there, well known and known only locally and the history. Bryans wrote a number of books about other places including Brazil and Iceland, but his connection to Ulster leads me to expect this is the best of his writing in this vein.
The book was first published in the early 1960's before The Troubles. It was reissued in the late 1980's and Bryans provided a second updated introduction, noting the impact of the Troubles. He explores a number of derelict 'big houses' and is clearly saddened by their fate. When he interjects stories about historical figures such as Jonathan Swift they appear without fanfare, and part of the story he weaves. In Bryans' Ulster, one cannot go more than a few miles without coming across gorgeous scenery, or the sight of a significant historical site. He made his way on buses, trains, walking and often given lifts by friendly locals. He often bemoans the loss of a quieter Ulster, and places overrun by tourists like the Giant's Causeway. It seems that each generation recalls earlier times that were better, and now lost. It begs the question what Bryans would think if he made the same journey in 2015, 53 years after his own.
I hesitate calling this a travel book because it is as full of historical detail as it is about places in Ulster. The details Bryans provides about history and known Ulster personages make this hard to categorize as a travel book. On the other hand, what is a place without details of the people who have lived there, well known and known only locally and the history. Bryans wrote a number of books about other places including Brazil and Iceland, but his connection to Ulster leads me to expect this is the best of his writing in this vein.
The book was first published in the early 1960's before The Troubles. It was reissued in the late 1980's and Bryans provided a second updated introduction, noting the impact of the Troubles. He explores a number of derelict 'big houses' and is clearly saddened by their fate. When he interjects stories about historical figures such as Jonathan Swift they appear without fanfare, and part of the story he weaves. In Bryans' Ulster, one cannot go more than a few miles without coming across gorgeous scenery, or the sight of a significant historical site. He made his way on buses, trains, walking and often given lifts by friendly locals. He often bemoans the loss of a quieter Ulster, and places overrun by tourists like the Giant's Causeway. It seems that each generation recalls earlier times that were better, and now lost. It begs the question what Bryans would think if he made the same journey in 2015, 53 years after his own.
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