A nice leisurely breakfast this morning before heading for the Giant's Causeway (apparently Ireland’s number one tourist attraction.) We digressed along the way to see the Dark Hedges. This beautiful avenue of beech trees was planted by the Stuart family in the eighteenth century. It was intended as a compelling landscape feature to impress visitors as they approached the entrance to their Georgian mansion, Gracehill House. Two centuries later, the trees remain a magnificent sight and have become one of the most photographed natural phenomena in Northern Ireland. It's just a pity that they have done nothing to regulate traffic through the avenue as crowds of people, cars and tour busses detract, somewhat from the effect. No doubt since the avenue has appeared in Game of Thrones, representing the King's Road, the numbers of tourists have grown. A nice spot all the same.
Next stop was Bushmill, where originally we intended to get the train to the causeway. All looked pretty deserted at the station so we chose to go by Park and Ride instead. Later on, we did see the train running along it's tracks so it apparently was running – just no signage.
After yesterday's walking tour we decided to do the same at the Giant's Causeway. It wasn’t a good choice. We had an eighteen-year-old girl who cracked corny jokes all the times and hadn't yet learned how to speak clearly. Having headsets that picked up what she was saying helped a little but it was all a bit of a waste of time. The self-guided audio tour would have been a better option. None of this detracted from the causeway itself, however, the rock formations are just amazing.
The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea. Most of the columns are hexagonal, although there are also some with four, five, seven or eight sides. The tallest are about 12 metres high, and the solidified lava in the cliffs is 28 metres thick in places.
The site was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986 and is the only World Heritage Site in Northern Ireland.
A bit further along from the causeway, there is a section of cliff with the same basalt columns, called the Organ Pipes stretching up the cliff face. Just amazing. We chose the red track to get back to the Visitors Centre which meant winding our way up a track and stairs up the face of the cliff. Great views.
Back at the Visitors' Centre we were hanging out for lunch – very ordinary coffee, and ordinary Irish stew and an ordinary seafood chowder. We were a bit underwhelmed by the whole experience but the rocks are amazing.
A bit further along we called into Carrick-a-Rede Carrick-a-Rede is a famous rope bridge which links the mainland to the tiny island of Carrickarede (from Irish: Carraig a' Ráid, meaning "rock of the casting"). It spans 20 metres and is 30 metres above the rocks below. The decision or not to pay 7 pound to walk across a bridge was taken away from us when we found that there was a 1½ hour wait - there were so many people there. This is another spot that has appeared in Game of Thrones, the overflow car park (where we were parked) was used for a village scene at some stage in the series. The car park is surrounded by interesting rock formations on most sides. The closest we got to the bridge was a photo taken a long way away.
Time was getting away from us at this stage so it was the fastest route to our accommodation on the northern side of Belfast. No sign of the owner Richard, but another tenant, Alex was there to welcome us. Accommodation is fairly basic and in a bit of a run down suburb but is quite adequate. We'll find out what the bed is like soon.
We popped up to a shopping centre nearby and went to Nando's for dinner, Quite satisfactory.
