Northern Ireland: Honeymoon 2014
After driving through Ireland to get to Belfast, it was time to tour the North Coast of Northern Ireland. We drove out of Belfast in search of our first stop The Dark Hedges. Two rows of Beech trees growing along a road, meant to be an impressive entrance to the 18th Century Stewart family home Gracehill House. Also another Game of Thrones filming location. Filmed for season two when Aria Stark escapes Kings Landing. We arrived around noon so they weren't dark at all but still very beautiful.
Our next stop was hitting the North Coast along the North Atlantic Ocean. We started at the Carrick-a-rede rope Bridge which was originally made for fishermen to reach a small island. Now it just allows access to the windswept clifftop. It has views of the coast, islands and we even saw Scotland, an island called Islay, faintly in the distance. But being on the coast it was Windy! It made walking over the bridge an interesting experience. It bounced as you walked but also shifted to the side as it was blown by the wind. Thankfully we're not afraid of a little wobbling. We also saw some fuzzy Oreo Cookie cows on the hillside during the 1km walk to the bridge.
As we made our way along the coast we next hit Giant’s Causeway. It was once considered a top wonder of the UK (not the world, but it should be). FunFact: It is a certain kind of volanic lava called basalt that cools a certain way to shape these hexagonal columns. The little OCD in me feels so satisfied seeing them all fit together so nicely. The rain finally caught up to us for this stop but as soon as we left cleared up again!
Our last stop on the north coast was at the Dunluce Castle ruins. Unfortunately it closed just before we arrived so we couldn't wander around inside the castle but the grounds were still open for us to check out. It's a medieval castle, thought to be built in the early 16th century. Most of it was Built on a rocky outcrop it was abandoned after part of it fell into the sea. A lot of Irish, Scottish and English families fought over it. Archeologists dug in the fields around the castle and found the original cobblestones that were part of a marketplace outside the castle. There was also a cave underneath called Mermaids cave that James went into.
Such a great day, only hit a little bit of rain and it wasn't as cold as Doolin. I'll post about Belfast city tomorrow.
