The creativity myth

READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Q u e stio n s 28-40, which are based on Reading
Passage 3 below.
A leap into history
A. Between the Inishowen peninsula, north west of Derry, and the Glens of Antrim, in the 
east beyond the Sperrin Mountains, is found some of Western Europe’s most captivating 
and alluring landscape.
B. The Roe Valley Park, some 15 miles east of Derry is a prime example. The Park, like 
so many Celtic places, is steeped in history and legend. As the Roc trickles down through 
heather bogs in the Sperrin Mountains to the South, it is a river by the time it cuts through 
what was once called the ‘garden of the soul’ - in Celtic ‘Gortenanima’.
C. The castle of O ’Cahan once stood here and a number of houses which made up the 
town of Limavady. The town takes its name from the legend of a dog leaping into the river 
Roe carrying a message, or perhaps chasing a stag. This is a wonderful place, where the 
water traces its way through rock and woodland; at times, lingering in brooding pools of 
dark cool water under the shade of summer trees, and, at others, forming weirs and leads 
for water mills now long gone.
D. The Roe, like all rivers, is witness to history and change. To Mullagh Hill, on the west 
bank of the River Roe just outside the present day town of Limavady, St Columba came in 
575 AD for the Convention of Drumceatt. The world is probably unaware that it knows 
something of Limavady; but the town is, in fact, renowned for Jane Ross’s song 
Danny
Roy,
written to a tune once played by a tramp in the street. Limavady tow n itself and 
many of the surrounding villages have Celtic roots but no one knows for sure just how old

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the original settlement of Limavady is.
E. Some 30 miles along the coast road from Limavady, one comes upon the forlorn, but 
imposing ruin of Dunluce Castle, which stands on a soft basalt outcrop, in defiance of the 
turbulent Atlantic lashing it on all sides. The jagged-toothed ruins sit proud on their rock top 
commanding the coastline to east and west. The only connection to the mainland is by a 
narrow bridge. Until the kitchen court fell into the sea in 1639 killing several servants, the 
castle was fully inhabited. In the next hundred years or so, the structure gradually fell into 
its present dramatic state of disrepair, stripped of its roofs by wind and weather and robbed 
by man of its caned stonework. Ruined and forlorn its aspect maybe yet, in the haunting 
Celtic twilight of the long summer evenings, it is redolent of another age, another dream.
F. A mile or so to the east of the castle lies Port na Spaniagh, where the
Neapolitan Galleas, Girona, from the Spanish Armada went down one dark October night 
in 1588 on its way to Scotland, of the 1500-odd men on board, nine survived.
G. Even further to the east, is the Giant’s Causeway stunning coastline with strangely 
symmetrical columns of dark basalt - a beautiful geological wonder. Someone once said 
of the Causeway that it was worth seeing, but not worth going to see. That was in the days 
of horses and carriages, when travelling was difficult. But it is certainly well worth a visit. 
The last lingering moments of the twilight hours are the best lime to savour the full power 
of the coastline s magic; the time when the place comes into its own. The tourists are 
gone and if you are very lucky you will be alone. A fine circular walk will take you down to 
the Grand Causeway, past amphitheatres of stone columns and formations. It is not 
frightening, but there is a power in the place - tangible, yet inexplicable. The blackness of 
some nights conjure up feelings of eeriness and unease. The visitor realises his place in 
the scheme of the magnificent spectacle. Once experienced, it is impossible to forget the 
grandeur of the landscape.
H. Beyond the Causeway, connecting the mainland with an outcrop of rock jutting out of 
the turbulent Atlantic, is the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, when first constructed, the 
bridge was a simple rope handrail with widely spaced slats which was used mainly by 
salmon fishermen needing to travel from the island to the mainland. In time, the single 
handrail was replaced with a more sturdy caged bridge, however, it is still not a crossing 
for the faint- hearted. The Bridge swings above a chasm of rushing, foaming water that 
seems to drag the unwary- down, and away. Many visitors who make the walk one way 
are unable to return resulting in them being taken off the island by boat.