Ben Lowry: It was a stunning, summery evening for Northern Ireland's prime new hotel in Portrush
On Thursday I was at the launch of the Dunluce Lodge hotel, Portrush.
The drive up, cutting through Co Antrim countryside in glorious sunshine, was a pleasure – made all the easier by that crucial extra few miles of dual carriageway at the A26 north of Glarryford, which were added a few years ago.
At the reception I spoke to one of the owners, Jonathan Harper, who is based in Texas, who said that it had one of the best hotel views over a golf course (he spotted the site while playing on Royal Portrush – it was a private home).
It was like an ideal summer evening, albeit chillier, with the sun setting to the west in a way you see in places such as the California coast (as in the video attached to this article).
Some of the weather in the British Isles this week has been exceptional. This article has a satellite image of the British Isles today (Saturday) when it is cloudless over Northern Ireland at lunchtime but also, if you scroll further down, on Wednesday when the sun was at its highest point on Wednesday, and there was not even a wispy cloud can be seen anywhere over Britain and Ireland.
This happens barely ever, perhaps once a year – normally even very sunny days have some clusters of clouds in some places at any one time.
That day every UK region recorded at least 12 hours of sun, which – given that we get about 13 hours of daylight now is akin to almost non stop sunshine everywhere.
Thursday was almost as good, with most places getting 10+ hours.
And this coming week, like today (Saturday) is set to be fine.
Northern Ireland was at its stunning best as this prime new hotel, which will be enjoyed by visitors from around the world, was unveiled.
The Open is coming up, 100 days from now, which will help showcase the beautiful north coast of the province.
• Ben Lowry (@Benlowry2) is News Letter editor