Port Naain has many quaint customs, and few quainter than the foam runners of the Three Mills Beck. It is not often they get to practice their esoteric sport but if they do, it is worth watching.

You might notice that on a river with eddies and whirls, you can get foam on the water. Sometimes, if conditions are right, the foam forms into a ball and sits atop the water. To be honest, you could watch some rivers for a lifetime and never see this phenomena. On others, perhaps once or twice in a decade if you were lucky. But on Three Mills Beck, whether by a freak of nature, or perhaps by the long forgotten artifice of man, it will happen most years.

The spotting of the first foam ball is a signal for great excitement. Immediately the ball is seen, somebody rings the bell at the Shrine…