Divining the Blackstaff 19th Nov 2010

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The group of walkers met at the Broadway entrance to the Park Centre, Paula Campbell who was demonstrating divining showed the group how to turn 2 wire coat hangers and 2 bic biros into a set of divining rods that would allow us to attempt to follow the underground course of the river. The sheaths of the biros acted as holders for the opened out coat hanger, bent to a right angle, which allowed the diviner to be sure that they weren’t manipulating the rods.

Prior to setting off a woman approached us in the car park seeing the rods, wondering if we were divining. She kindly gave us a few helpful hints sending us towards the Royal Victoria Hospital. Walkers had to establish the rods configuration for ‘yes’ and ‘no’ so that they could direct simple questions about the river course to the rods. Once that was done we set off through the Broadway entrance to the Hospital. Our first reading suggested walking as close to the parallel Westlink as possible, which we did. Surfacing at Roden St we consulted the rods and crossed the bridge and followed Roden St towards the Donegall Rd. The rods then suggested veering onto the path beside the railway line which lead us to Blythefield Park Allotment, BMX track and landscaped park, a location tucked in behind the railway line that none of us had ever seen before.

Then a labyrinth of small streets took us out to Sandy Row where we partook of small bananas from an Asian supermarket followed by ‘ginger rings’, giant ginger flavoured bakes that were something between a cake and a biscuit. As the name Sandy Row suggested we were still over land where the river might well flow. From here we vaguely knew to make our way to the Gasworks to find the river mouth but used the rods to direct us through the Bruce St exit of the Europa Bus Centre. Coming out on Victoria St we crossed over slipping past the Crown Bar. By Wellington Place the rods were starting to give strong readings feeling like magnets near steel even in our novice hands. We figured we were over the river at this point. We emerged to skirt around the front of the BBC where Mac knew the river definitely flowed. We proceeded down Ormeau Ave crossed over the gasworks and found a plaque dating from 1882 marking the mouth of the culverted river.

All in all an interesting walk trying to track something no longer visible using an ancient technology and peoples’ half knowledge of the course of the river. There were interesting issues raised about being ‘guided’ by inanimate objects, which took us to previously unknown parts of the city. I found myself wondering if the rods operate as navigational devises in the way migrating birds use the earth’s magnetic field to navigate, Other walkers observations on this would be interesting to hear. The route took us from motorway to residential, a hidden garden at a site associated with conflict and through the city centre on an idyllically sunny day.