Carrick-A-Rede/Giant’s Causeway/Dunluce Castle and more

More amazing things to see in today’s adventures, from Ballycastle to Bushmills along the Antrim Coast.  Every turn the road went around revealed more beautiful coastline, and then there were a few specific stops as well.

For over 350 years, fishermen have strung a rope bridge 30m above the sea to allow them to access the best places to catch the migrating salmon.  Crossed regularly by local fishermen, the bridge is also open to visitors.  This 20m-long, 1m-wide bridge of wire rope spans the chasm between the sea cliffs and the little island of Carrick-a-Rede, swaying 30m above the rock-strewn water.

Yes, I crossed it

Ballintoy Harbour is better known to Game of Thrones fans as the Iron Islands’ Lordsports Harbour

Ballintoy Parish Church on the hill above the harbour

Giant’s Causeway is an absolute MUST visit place.  It’s a place where science and folklore stories come to life!  Giant’s Causeway is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  A geological wonder with over 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the Giant’s Causeway is the result of intense volcanic and geological activity.  The Causeway provides a glimpse into the earth’s most ancient past.  An epic 60 million year-old legacy to the cooling and shrinking of successive lava flows.  As interesting as I know the science is, so is the folklore.  The story goes that the Irish giant Finn McCool built the Causeway so he could cross the sea to fight the Scottish giant Benandonner.  Benandonner pursued Finn back across the Causeway, but in turn took fright and fled back to Scotland, ripping up the Causeway as he went.  All that remains are its ends - the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland, and the island of Staffa in Scotland which has similar rock formations.

In addition to the hexagonal columns, you can also look for clues of the existence of the mighty giant including:

The Camel

 The Organ Pipes

 Giant’s Boot

Most spectacular though are the vast expanse of regular, closely packed, hexagonal stone columns:

Me - awestruck

Unfortunately I was too late to take a tour, but I couldn’t pass up visiting the property anyway.  Bushmills is the world's oldest legal distillery, having been granted a licence by King James I in 1608.

And then quite by fluke, I’m driving along the road, turned a corner and saw this:

The ruins of Dunluce Castle perch atop a dramatic basalt crag.  In the 13th century, Richard Og de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster, built the first castle at Dunluce.  In the 16th and 17th centuries the castle was the seat of the MacDonnell family and they built a Renaissance-style manor house within the walls.  Part of the castle, including the kitchen, collapsed into the sea in 1639 (taking seven servants and that night’s dinner with it) and then some time in the 18th century the north wall of the manor house also collapsed into the sea.

Dunluce Castle is also thought to be the inspiration for Cair Paravel in C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia.

And then in between all these amazing sites was ‘simple’ scenery:

 Me - enjoying everything

Here comes the rain

 Whitepark Bay - a spectacular sandy beach which forms a white arc between two headlands.  Apparently sometimes your only company might be the cows who are known to rest on the beach...they weren’t on the beach when I was there, but they were across the road.

 Back to Ballycastle again tonight - just in time for sunset