Port Gates at Larne
Passenger and freight traffic arriving from Scotland through the Port of Larne, encounter a roundabout/rotary immediately outside the confines of the Port gates.
View as cars & lorries leave the Port.
Who was the idiot who placed the light pole directly in front of the Art work?
The Gateway Sculpture by Paul Hogarth, represents the stern of a ship and is intended as an artistic interpretation of Larne’s maritime history. The Steel Stern, which has also been dubbed the Harbour Harp stands 12 metres high, and flanked by low stone walls.
The Stern – Larne Harbour Gateway Sculpture
At one time all passenger and freight traffic passed through these waters, but with the introduction of large fast ferries new berths and points of departure were developed in Belfast on the mouth of Belfast Lough.
I am sure that the Artist did not have a washing line in mind when he designed the piece.
During the ‘Marching Season’ in Northern Ireland some elements would hang flags on your granny if she stood on the one spot for more than five minutes. For a country so obsessed by flags, little respect is shown for them. New flags are placed/hung with great gusto at the end of June and left in place until they look like shredded rags not fit to be used as dusters!
My inner jury is still out on this one. Size isn’t everything! Perhaps the light pole and flags spoiled the idea for me.
It does look like a harp from this vantage point. The flags don’t help the view one bit.
I timed my visit badly, a boat load of cars and lorries were on the move and anxious to get on their way, so I was restricted in the angles I could use for taking photos.
Strings of those colorful flags were everywhere in Bhutan. Something to do with relatives that had died.
There were no TVs or radios that we knew about in that country. The bus driver told us that Osama din Ladin had been captured & the driver was our news source. That was over two years ago. We were disappointed that it wasn’t true.
Hang flags on yer granny hahahahaha
Like your comment about the granny and flags.
Not so keen on the sculpture. Larne needs all the beautification it can get – but that’s not what it needs.
BHB – Not these flags. The flags above all have a political conitation, and can at times be rather intimidating.
Baino – They would too!
BTW – I will have a better one next week.
Hard to judge the sculpture as there’s not enough light to see the detail. Certainly the lamppost is idiotically sited!
To choose such a sculpture for a harbour shows imagination. And the artist has come up trumps with a creation that does justice to the subject.
Nick – If the sculpture was on the approach road to the town from Belfast, It would look well and the traffic coming downhill, have more time and space to appreciate it. The present site is right on top of the port gates (One or two lorry lengths), so you have little time to see it. The local Council paid a small fortune for it and very few of the townsfolk ever see it.
Ramana – In a different setting, certainly, but on the present spot it is almost suffocating.