After a few days of trail-stomping, the Frette sheets, Melin Tregwynt blankets and cafetiere coffee in its 13 decadent bedrooms (all named after ships built in the adjacent harbour in the 19th century) feel like just rewards.
Built in the 1970s, the harbour has been given Blue Flag status by the Foundation for Environmental Education in recognition of both its effort to protect the local environment and its high standard of safety and service facilities.
Among the most idyllic spots shown in the series is Ballintoy Harbour, built in the 1700s and still a working harbor, located 60 miles north of Belfast.
The limited number of modern fortifications built in Ireland, such as those with the first gunports retrofitted to Carrickfergus Castle in the 1560s and at Corkbeg in Cork Harbour and built in the 1570s in fear of an invasion, were equally unexceptional by European standards.
The entrance to the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, which was built in the 1970s under a private tender but reverted to government control in 1999, is permanently gridlocked, partly thanks to tolls that are too low, especially at peak hours.
Concrete flood defences, erosion control structures, port and harbour facilities, and renewable energy infrastructure are increasingly being built in the world's coastal regions.
The upper part of a 166 metre ramp built in 1837 at the Harbour Workshops is still visible between Victoria Dock and the estuary.
Colossus of Rhodes, a huge bronze statue built at the harbour of Rhodes in commemoration of the raising of the siege of Rhodes (305 304 bce).
Designed by Tony Fretton for a charitable foundation, it was built in sight of Poole Harbour, in the spirit, says the architect, of a "poor village church".
A large number of warehouses were built around the harbour for storage and trade.
