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Published: March 28th 2007
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Northern Ireland We arrived in Belfast on March 18th after 30hrs of travelling and having Sunday the 18th happen twice. Since we crossed the International Date Line we arrived in LA 12 hrs before we left NZ! We finally made it to Ireland at 5pm on the 19th and we're met by Lyndsay and Jeff at the Belfast airport. We picked up our rental car and drove to our B&B for the night. Dave and I had great intentions of going out for supper with Lyndsay and Jeff, but after a shower and a lay down to watch The Simpsons we woke up 4 hrs later to Lyndsay at our door with food!! What a great friend!
The next day (20th) after Dave and I had a good 14hrs sleep, we loaded up the car to start our 3 day driving tour of Northern Ireland. We started our day at the Belfast Castle; this Castle was built in 1870 which is considered young in castle terms. From there we left Belfast and headed to the town of Carrickfergus, which we laughed when we discovered, was only 14 miles out of Belfast! There seems to be a town every few miles here
Carrickfergus Castle
Jeff, Lyndsay and Kendra checking out the castle. in Ireland. Our main reason for stopping here was to go to the Carrickfergus Castle. Construction of the castle began in 1177 and was completed 1242. The castle has been kept in good shape and has a museum that shows what everything was. We spent a good couple hours cruising around there, and then rewarded ourselves with a pint before leaving for our next destination. From there we continued along the coast through the town of Larne and into the Glens of Antrim. We stopped in Glenarm to checkout a garden, but there was nothing growing because it was still too early in the year. Glenariff Forest was our next stop to do a walk to a waterfall, but the cold weather prevented us from accomplishing that; so we continued onto Cushendall for the night, which was only 2 miles up the road! For our first day of travel it took us 27 miles to get to Cushendall! We booked ourselves into a B&B, and then the 4 of us went into town for beer and supper.
The next day we went back to Glenariff Forest to do the waterfalls walk that we didn’t do the day before. It
Carrickfergus Castle
The Dunny!! Everything would run down the side of the castle and into the water below! was a 3km walk to take us to the Ess-na-Larach waterfalls and followed along streams and farmland. It was worth backtracking the whole 2 miles to do it again! After the walk we hoped back in the car and headed out again, after passing through Cushendun, we turned off and took the road less travelled to Torr Head. This road was narrow and windy and was lined with old style houses and farms. Our first stop on this road was Torr Head, which is Ireland’s closest point to Scotland; only 19kms away. We also stopped at Murlough Bay to see old miners’ cottages, where coal and chalk had once been mined from the surrounding cliffs. Dave decided to see if our rental car was good for off-roading, we didn’t get stuck but we did flatten a few bumps with the bottom of our car! We never did find those miners’ cottages! After this we got back on the main road and headed to the Carrick-a-Rede Bridge. This is a 20m long, 1m wide rope bridge between sea cliffs and a small island. The bridge was built to get to the island that has been used as a salmon fishery for
Highland Cattle
Lyndsay got pretty exicited when we saw a field with these guys in them! the last 200 years. The fishermen would throw their nets off the tip of the island to catch the migrating salmon.
The day turned crappy again after this so we headed to Bushmills the town where we would be stopping for the day. Again it was just a few miles up the road. When we arrived we did a tour of Bushmills Distillery, where the famous Bushmills whiskey is made. This distillery is the oldest in the world and began in 1608, the whiskey is made from barley and water from St. Columb’s Rill and is aged in oak barrels. For taking the tour we were rewarded with a free sample of whiskey. Jeff was one of the lucky 4 who got to do a whiskey tasting session of 3 Bushmills whiskeys and Johnny Walker Scotch and Jim Bean. After warming up with our whiskeys we found ourselves a place for the night, then had supper and surprise another beer!
The next day (22st) we drove to Londonderry, but of course before getting there we did some stops along the way. Our first stop of the day was the Giants Causeway, which is one of Northern Irelands main attractions.
The Coast
It was bloody cold this day, but the views of the coast and hills were worht getting out of the car. There is snow on the hills which is rare for Ireland. The Giants Causeway of stone columns that were formed around 60 million years ago from molten lava. As the lava cooled from the top and bottom inwards the lava contracted creating cracks that allowed the rocks to form. There is of course a myth of the Giants Causeway; the story goes that the Irish Giant, Finn MacCool built the causeway so he could cross the sea to fight the Scottish Giant Benandonner. When the Irish giant got there he discovered the Scottish giant was much bigger so he fled back to Ireland. Benandonner followed, and Finn’s wife dressed him up like a baby and put him in a crib. When the Scottish giant saw how big the “baby” was he fled back to Scotland because he feared if the baby was that big then Finn must be bigger, as he fled he ripped up the causeway leaving the remains of a causeway in Ireland and one in Scotland. That’s the legend; it’s up to you to believe lava formations or giants! After the Causeway we headed to yet again another castle. The Dunluce castle was built in the 16th and 17th centuries and considering its age it is still in
Sunrise
Since Dave and I were still getting used to the time change we kept waking up early. This is sunrise from our window in Cushendall a nice seaside town. rather good shape. It’s interesting that these castles can last 100s of centuries yet nowadays our houses fall down after 20 years! Although part of the castle did collapse and fall into the sea killing some servants. After the castle we headed to Castlerock and did a short walk to a Mussenden Temple, where the mistress of a Bishop lived. There is also the ruin of an old house that was built in the 1770s. From here we continued onto Londonderry or Derry as the locals call it. Derry is the only city that still has the city wall completely intact. The walls were built in 1614 and are 8m high and 9m thick.
I’m sure most people have heard something about the troubles in Northern Ireland over the years, and in Derry is where a lot of these troubles occurred. The most recent of these troubles was between the 1960s-1998, but there have been wars of some kind going on here since the 1500s. The area which saw most of the troubles was the Bogside, and this was where we stayed. These days there are no problems but between the 60s and the 90s it was a different
story and the conflicts were between the Protestant and Catholic communities. We did a walking tour of Derry and our guide took us through the history of Derry from the beginning till the recent years. The most memorial part of the tour was the murals that local artists have painted to honour those who were a part of Derry history. They range from a painting of the 14 men who died on Bloody Sunday to a Peace mural. For those of you who may not know about Bloody Sunday, it occured January 30th 1972. It started with a protest, which turned into a riot of of Derry citizens throwing stones and bottles at the British army. This turned even more violent when the British Parachute Regiment responed by opening fire into the crowd. By the end of it all 13 people died that day, 15 people injuired, and 1 man later died of his injuiries. Keep in mind we were only given one side of the story and this is the side of the Catholics. There is an enquiry into the days events but the report has not yet been finished.
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