French student takes ornamental dog on epic journey up Binevenagh

A French student's holiday took a serendipitous turn when he placed an ornamental dog he adopted at a remote beauty spot close to his tutor's native County Derry home.

Ciaran Forrest, originally from Ballykelly, is an English tutor in the French town of Pézenas, near Montpellier in France.

When he came across a photo posted by Jason Patton on the Limavady Past & Present Facebook group, he immediately recognised the conclusion of a story mentioned by one of his students.

“I have a client here who booked himself a holiday to Ireland before he was even a client of mine,” Ciaran told the County Derry Post.

“He said he'd been to the South before and done the west coast and was looking to go somewhere new.

“He said he might head off from Dublin up the north coast, go to the Halloween party in Derry, so I said that's where I am from.

The dog was found next to the Mannán Mac Lir statue on Binevenagh. Pic: Jason Patton.

“I hadn't actually spoken to him at all about Benone or Binevenagh or anywhere like that, so he went away, came back and when he came in for his lesson he said he had something to tell me.

“So when I stumbled upon the post on Facebook and it didn't click the first time I looked at it, but when I looked again I said 'I think that's the thing he was telling me about.”

Ciaran's student had been enjoying a drive in north Donegal en route to Derry when he and his wife pulled over to take a photograph of a nearby mountain.

When he glanced at the ground, something caught his eye.

“Someone had fly-tipped their rubbish in this field, and the dog was just sitting right in the middle of the pile of rubbish,” said Ciaran.

“He has a wee rescue dog himself and wanted to take the dog, because it looked in good condition and he planned to bring it back to France.

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“In the end though it weighed about five kilos and he only had hand baggage, but they kept it with them for a couple of days.

“They went through Donegal over into the North and by the time he'd got to Binevenagh he'd bought a few souvenirs and didn't have any room left in his bag.”

At the summit of Binevenagh sits the sculpture of Celtic sea god Mannán Mac Lir, regarded in mythology to be ruler and guardian of the 'Otherworld'.

Ciaran's student felt the mythical over-king needed some company.

“He thought he looked a bit lonely, so he plonked the wee dog there and thought nothing more of it,” said Ciaran.

“He didn't take a photo or anything, so when I saw the photo somebody else had taken I had to laugh.

“He said he couldn't even tell me where it was exactly because they had stopped along the road and it just happened that the dog caught his eye.

“He said his wife thought he was crazy, so she was pretty happy that he left it behind.”

Ciaran said the story is an indication of just how small and interconnected the world can often feel.

“The probability was nearly zero, but it's a small world,” he said.

“My student in France goes all the way over to the North, sticks a wee dog at Binevenagh where I'm from and then it pops up on my Facebook feed.”