The following is a report on the "Ould Lammas Fair" held the past weekend in Ballycastle Co. Antrim.

Thousands in Ballycastle for Lammas Fair

By Jane Bell THOUSANDS of Bank Holiday visitors flooded into Ballycastle today-keeping up a 400-year-old tradition on the first day of the historic Aul' Lammas Fair.

Traffic ground to a halt as hundreds of jam-packed stalls spilled out from the hub of the Diamond, at the heart of the County Antrim seaside town, far into the surrounding streets.

With more than 100,000 day trippers and holiday makers expected over the two-day annual event, the fair is one of the biggest country-town gatherings since the shadow of foot-and-mouth disease hung over Ulster's rural communities.

Once again this year, a flock of grazing sheep were ousted from a field to make a temporary car park for hundreds of visiting vehicles.

At £3 each, the cars made a better return.

While there's still a bit of fair day horse-trading, focused around the old livestock mart in Fairhill Street, livestock dealing has largely given way to household goods, clothing, bric-a-brac and fruit stands. But there's always a pony ride for the kids.

Stall holders were doing a roaring trade in the traditional dulse and yellow man-immortalised along with Mary Ann in the late songwriter John H Macauley's famous chorus.

Wandering minstrels have long since been replaced by local musicians hawking their own tapes and CDs.

And spit-roasted pig has given way to the pervasive smell of burger stalls.

Church halls were doing brisk business in "plain and meat" teas.

In the modern hustle and bustle-with a neon-lit funfair as a backdrop-the Lammas Fair's remarkable history seems long forgotten.

As far back as 1570 a fair was held at nearby Dunaneanie, which means "The Fort of the Fair"- a MacDonald fort.

And in 1606 Sir Randal MacDonald was granted a royal charter for the holding of six fairs in Ballycastle.

The Lammas festival is traditionally at the start of August but, the story goes, because of the late harvest in the area, the fair was celebrated here at the end of the month.

It's not thought to have been a hiring fair-historians point out these would have been held in May and November.

Instead, it is believed to have been something of a match-making fair. That's one tradition that seems to have held.