After breakfast and a short walk to admire the coastal views
from our accommodation, we headed north for the Wild Atlantic Coast, leaving
Ireland for the time being and entering the United Kingdom. After a two and a half hour drive we stopped
at the remains of Dunluce Castle, situated on an outcrop above the Atlantic on
a site that has been used for defence since at least 500CE, with the present
castle ruins dating mainly from the 16th and 17th
centuries. The site, which when occupied was protected from the landward side
by a drawbridge, would have been easy to defend, however it could have become a
bit uncomfortable if put to siege.
From the castle we made away along the rugged “Wild Atlantic
Coast”, stopping for lunch of Irish Stew along the way, then to The Giants
Causeway, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a geological wonder with over 40,000
interlocking basalt columns, the result of intense volcanic and geological
activity – an epic 60 million year legacy to the cooling and shrinking of
successive lava flows. The Giants
Causeway is steeped in myth and legend with many locals believing that real
magic happens here. We stepped from
hexagonal stone to stone, up and down. The Giant’s Causeway appears on the
album cover of the 1973 Led Zeppelin V album “House of the Holy”
We continued along the spectacular coastal road, pausing to
visit a lovely old church and graveyard and a cute little fishing harbour as
well as stopping for other photo opportunities, then joined the
patiently-waiting queue to walk just over a kilometre, along paths and down many,
many steps, to walk across the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge which traverses a
20-metre wide chasm, although we can assure you that it feels much wider than
that as you make your way over the shaky rope bridge, with a 30-metre drop to
the churning sea below. We then walked
the 10km walk back - or so it seemed, back up the many steps we had so blithely
walked down, and along the endless paths.
We have become used to experiencing four seasons in one day; on this
excursion we experienced them in one hour….mild to wild.
We then took the gentle coastal drive back to the holiday
town of Portrush, then to our digs for the night in Coleraine.
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