Giants Causeway and Coastal Road Trip

Second day of our Belfast tour takes us around the coast to the Giants Causeway, Old Bushmills Distillery, Dunluce castle and the ever so popular Carrick-a-rede rope bridge. As part of our 2-day package, Worldwide City Sightseeing advertised the above as “tours”. Not exactly correct as you will read later and if we were to visit Belfast again, we would not do the Giants Causeway tour. For the 50NIP that this trip cost I’m betting there is a better way to “tour” the sites.

Once again our host arranged for the bus to pick us up at the B&B and drop us off at the tour bus. Now that was great but what we didn’t think of at the time is that the bus is not going to take you back to the B&B so get ready for a little walking after the tour.

We head off somewhere around 10am for the first stop which is Old Bushmills Distillery. Didn’t seem strange at the time but once we arrived at the distillery around 11am, it was clear that hitting up a distillery before noon was a little hard core for us. And to add to the surprise, after the coach stopped we were told that we had 20 minutes to do whatever you want to do but be advised that the distillery tour takes 45 minutes, so unless you want to hike back from here don’t sign up for the tour. Makes you wonder why you even stop if you don’t have time for the tour. But we’re here now so Collette went off to take pictures of buildings while I ordered us a sandwich to take with us for later in the day. Bam, there went 20 minutes, back on the bus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Side note: The word “whiskey” comes from the Gaelic “uisce beatha”, meaning “water of life”. This is different from Scotch “whisky” which obviously doesn’t have the “e”.

Second ”tour” for the day was about 20 minutes away from Bushmills and is said to be the most photographed castle in Northern Ireland, Dunluce castle. Being very interested in ancient history and seeing ruins of what was once a 13^th century fortress was just what we wanted. OK, I can do without a shot of whiskey because we get to see this castle, cool. Well, the “tour” of this ruin leaves a little to be desired. The driver, again once we get there, says that they can only stop for a very short time because they block the road. (Apparently this is the only road in all of Ireland where people actually are concerned about blocking traffic)

The castle came in sight situated on the cliffs of the North Antrim coast, magnificent! The roof has long since rotted away but the walls and the twin towers are still standing. Now the tour part. The bus made a U-turn about ½ mile away from the castle on this narrow road and came to a stop. The driver told everyone that if they wanted a picture of the castle, ½ mile away, get off the bus, go to the rear of the bus, take your pictures and get back on, quickly. This is a little different type of “tour” than we are used to but we got off, took our pictures and got back on. Less than 10 minutes all told. Think about that when you reach for your wallet to pay Worldwide City Sightseeing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next stop is Giant’s Causeway, a large basalt rock formation formed more than 60 million years ago by volcanic eruption. This formation is quite unique in that the stones form columns that have 6, 7, 8, or more sides and are all close to being 12 inches across. They really look like someone has stacked these one on top of the other to make “piles”.

Now folklore has it that the Irish giant Finn MacCool created this causeway to walk over to Scotland to do some whooping up on their giant. Finn was the leader of the Fianna, an elite band of troops that defended Ireland. He had seeing powers, was strong and brave and quite remarkably, could gain wisdom by sucking his thumb. Doesn’t exactly strike fear in your heart, does it? Anyway, the Scottish giant was scared so he tore up the causeway so Finn couldn’t come over and that’s what we see today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well we have plenty of time to walk around the beach, going to be here for 2hrs. Hum, 2hrs at the beach but only 10 minutes on the side of the road to “tour” the castle. Oh well, it is what it is, just live and learn.

 

 

 

 

We strolled, stumbled, walked down to the causeway which takes about 20 minutes from the parking lot. There is a visitor’s center at the beginning of the walk but our driver advised us not to pay the extra fee and just walk down to the formation. Nice to see that he was concerned about us wasting money. The formations are pretty interesting and once there you can walk anywhere, right off the edge into the ocean if you’re not careful. We decided this would be a great place to enjoy our sandwiches and look out over the North Atlantic, besides it was a beautiful day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finished our lunch and headed back to wait for the bus. The walk uphill takes about 25-30 minutes unless you take the bus. Yes there is a bus you ride if you don’t want to walk up the hill and it only costs 1.8NIP.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for…….the Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge, yea! Bob would love this 29^th wonder of the world stretching some 65 feet across a large chasm that drops 80 feet below. This engineering marvel sways a little, bounces a little but is perfectly safe to cross. Originally a rope bridge of this type was used by fishermen to reach their lobster cages and fishing nets located on the small island across the chasm. Today though, it’s a money maker. For a measly 7NIP ($10USD) you can walk across the bridge. Our driver told us that we would be here for 2hrs to enjoy this wonder of the world, again 20 minutes down, 25-30 minutes back up leaving about an hour to meander around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although this was enticing, Collette and I decided to walk down to an old quarry that now serves as overflow parking. So I’m not sure who decided what was important for people to see on this tour to make them feel they got good value for their payment, but 10 minutes at the castle and 20 minutes at the distillery seemed a little out of proportion when compared to walking across a rope bridge.

 

 

 

Finished strolling so back to the bus and the coastal drive to Belfast. This was a nice way to return given that it goes right along the coast, and I wasn’t driving. Again, there was no stopping so see what you can from the windows. There was one stop for 10 minutes about halfway back to let everyone use the restroom facilities and buy an ice cream. Shop owner must be related to the driver.

Made it back to Belfast early evening and decided to try Robinson’s Bar for dinner. Something to keep in mind, restaurants and pubs can be very warm, especially in the evening. Wear layers that you can remove. Dinner was uneventful, Shepherds pie for me and Collette had the Guinness pie, couple of glasses of wine and then back to the B&B for the night.