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Published: July 17th 2016
Glenarm
On the Antrim coastThe plan was to head across the top of Ireland to see the Giants Causeway, drop in for a drop if possible at Bushmills Distillery, roll on along to Malin Head – the northernmost point on the island – and start the journey down the Wild Atlantic Way.
To date we have seen the part of Ireland that is beautiful with green fields, hedges or stone walls, attractive villages, recently painted houses with neat gardens and old pubs. The drive along the Antrim coast gave some hints, and the Giants Causeway was our introduction to the spectacular, magnificent and very interesting part of Ireland that is its sea and wild landscape along part of the north and the west. If I try to give it a description that it deserves I run the risk of using up all of my adjectives and superlatives and I know there is more to come so I will probably leave most of that to others and talk more about the process.
The Causeway is one of the premier attractions of Ireland and rightly so. It seems to be managed well to cope with the very high numbers of visitors. The Visitors Centre is
Our guide
Couldn't get a t-shirt with this on it though tucked into the hills above the coast. It isn't visible from down the cliff. The displays are well put together and a rolling audio visual presentation provides some information on what you are about to walk through and about. Guided tours are available and, as I recall, they are free. They happen every hour or so. You might start to appreciate that it could be a little windy out there when they give you a headset and a receiver so that you can hear the guide. The guide was excellent. A lot of knowledge and a sense of humour. The information we received was more detailed than in the presentations at the Visitors Center and provided a better explanation of the geology of the place.
The weather can obviously be an issue. On the day we were there it was bright sunshine for at least 10 minutes, then there was a strong squall that soaked us fairly well, followed up by a nicely brisk wind that both dried us off and froze us. Rule 1 in Ireland is to carry a 'waterproof'. We had followed this rule but that was when we started to reconsider the decision to leave
the waterproof pants behind.
Our schooldays mean that the term 'Spanish Armada' is somewhat familiar to us. This was a place where we found out about one of legacies of the Spanish Armada. One of the ships that was on its way home around the top of Scotland and down past Ireland came to grief here in a place now aptly named Spanish Bay. Just five of the sailors survived and they seem to have merged into the local community. Recently the wreck and some salvage operations have occurred after some legal wrangling about who owns what.
The Giants Causeway would be a geologist's heaven. Depending on your interest in such things you could spend anything from an afternoon to a few years here. We were there for about half a day, did the tour, walked down to the shore and up along the various paths. The longer cliff walk was on the agenda but an increasingly painfull back intervened and we decided to move on by car.
A short drive from the Causeway back along the coast is Carrick a Rede (meaning Island in the Way, apparently) where a rope bridge crosses a stream that flows
De-e-rrr!
Another quaint name down from the higher land. The Parks Service manages this area as well. There are photos of the fishermen carrying massive salmon back in the day. It was a major industry for this part of the coast. Catches of 250 salmon an hour were common. You wont catch 250 in week now. No more industry or employment.
Bushmills is yet another attractive village in Northern Ireland. Nice little stream with very clear water runs through the village. Ideal place for a distillery and so, in 1608, that is what was established. It is still going so, given it was a pretty cool and definitely wet sort of day we decided a tour where we might warm up was a good idea. It isn't all that easy to turn the production of distilled spirit into a tourist experience but Bushmills do a reasonable job. They take you through the basics, show you the production line and then proceed to the main event. You get one shot of whisky and a taster of one other if you are lucky. Seems to me a few small tasters would be a better idea and let you buy a shot of the one you
Cliff textures
Just one of the interesting things at Giants Causeway
like if they feeling that tight.
The best they sell is very, very good. Their average is just as average as you would expect. Without doubt the best information we received on the day was that the top of the line 16 year old stuff was on sale at Sainsbury's as a loss leader for about half the price it was sold at the distillery. It is very nice and is to be consumed very slowly with appreciation.
We had had enough of towns and cities for the moment and, rather than proceed through (London)Derry, we spotted a road that could take us along the coast through Portrush and Downhill – the people in the naming department must have been a little tired that day – and across Lough Foyle in a ferry at the skinny part at the top, across to Greencastle or Moville on the other side (it wasn't clear which one). Madam on the GPS agreed that this was a good idea so we toddled up the road.
While there was a bit of traffic to the prison that is also on that road, it didn't look all that active when we arrived at
Cliffs
Another interesting part of Giants Causeway the place from which a ferry might go. A few other people, tourists and some locals, were milling about. No-one seemed to be sure whether the ferry was operating or not. I asked one of the locals and he told me that one would be along in about half and hour and went into the coffee shop. We hung around for a while and then asked Google and found newspaper articles about the sale of the ferry and negotiations, apparently still under way, about the service between the two counties involved – Londonderry, NI and Donegal, Ireland. The coffee shop was doing a nice trade serving people waiting, waiting, waiting.
It might be best to check early if you happen to pick that road to use. There was no ferry for us.
Malin Head is the northernmost tip of Ireland. It is like a lot of similar places around the world. Not a lot happening and not much to it other than that it is at the top of Ireland. Feels relatively remote for Ireland, which means that there is a village a kilometre or two away. We went there because we tend to do that sort of
Interesting geology
And again at Giants Causeway thing. Apparently the name is well known in Ireland because you hear it regularly in weather reports. The weather was pretty good on the day we were there. Nice breeze. Others considered that it was blowing a bloody gale and lets get to a place out of the wind.
Malin Head is also the beginning, or I suppose more correctly, the top of the Wild Atlantic Way. This route is touted as the 'longest defined coastal drive in the world' at 2500 kilometers. (We really do need to pick up our tourism act in Australia. What is the good of having a coastline of 20,000 kilometres and not promoting it?) We had decided to use the Wild Atlantic Way as our default route for the part of the trip down the west coast.
It turned out to be an excellent decision to follow the Wild Atlantic Way but we started out with some difficulties. It would have been very good if we could have simply told the Garmin to follow that route, but we couldn't. The navigation department had to set up these routes that picked up key towns and the person in charge of driving had to
Fionn mac Cumhail's Boot
aka Finn McCool's Boot, sitting nicely on the Giants Causeway keep an eye out for the wavy signs. We weren't well skilled, or perhaps properly coordinated, at this in the early stages and somewhere out of Letterkenny – who knew that this was such a large town with such a poky centre – we took the road around the southern rather than the northern side of the Derryveagh Mountains.
At this stage of the trip we were still keen to see every possible viewpoint and take a photo of every mountain range, every sheep hanging off a rock, all of the cute houses in the valleys, cliffs and such. Our disappointment in missing the road through Gweedore and the Rosses was, however, fairly quickly lessened by the drive out to Malin Beg and then along Donegal Bay through Killcar, Killbegs and into Donegal.
We didn't have much of an address for our accommodation in Donegal. They do have good addresses for some places in this country – at the back of the school, down from the castle – and this one was 'the diamond'. Handily, it was called the Diamond Lodge and it was supposedly in the center of town. So we headed for Donegal, putting 1 Main
Tourists
at Giants Causeway Street into the GPS – because at that point the navigation department hadn't worked out how to input an address without a street number.
Anyway to cut this story short, we came to a point where it looked very much as if we were actually arriving in Donegal except that the GPS was telling us that we still had many kilometres to go. We ignored the GPS and took a road that said it was going to Donegal and 2 minutes later spotted a sign for the Diamond Lodge on the other side of this very large traffic island thingy which was in the shape of a diamond. In Donegal they don't have a square, they have a diamond.
We were smack in the middle of town in accommodation that was very comfortable with pubs and eateries all about. We were becoming keen for a bit of traditional music. There hadn't been much in evidence in the parts of the north we had been staying in so we headed out for a feed and the possibility of some entertainment.
Reviews are often a good way to quickly find a reasonable place to eat in a new town.
Lots of columns
More familiar image of Giants Causeway We have tended not to use them much and rather go by word of mouth or the look of the place and its menu. This time the reviews and the word of mouth had a failure, at least for us. The Harbour View was touted as the best restaurant in town. Great food and great service. The place was certainly busy. We were directed to a table, a dirty table. Time went by. Our efforts to attract the attention of the waitstaff came to nought and so, I think for the first time in my life, we walked out. We can't comment on the food.
The place across the street, Doms Pier, provided good food and good service. There was also music downstairs in the rather larger than normal bar. This was OK and the musicians were good but they didn't put as much life into it as we had become used to. It wasn't a session as such, more a couple of musicians who were putting on some music for the tourists.
There were plenty of venues in Donegal where there was music but there were also busloads of tourists about, filling the places up. This was
our first real experience of the press of bulk tourism on this trip and we didn't enjoy it very much so we didn't stay out late – for Ireland.
The recommendations for breakfast came through. Linda's Cafe was excellent. One of the best full Irish breakfasts I have had. May have to consider a new pair of jeans if this goes on.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Glad you are enjoying the Emerald Isle!
Dave here.....we absolutely loved our time in Ireland and N. Ireland. Great beauty and very friendly people. Looks like you're having a grand time. Keep your eye to the sky and your waterproofs handy!