Giant's Causeway

I had booked a tour to see the Giant's Causeway. I didn't need a rental car for Northern Ireland. Besides the expense, it could all be done in one day, so better to let someone else do the driving.

The pickup was from the Europa Centre in the city and an early start was required. Fortunately the B&B was obliging and let me have an early breakfast.

There were some picketers outside, possibly in sympathy with the UK rail strikers.

First we headed north out of Belfast and then followed the coastal road northeast to Carrickfergus Castle.

It's quite impressive but we didn't explore the inside; there wasn't time, probably would have cost extra, and it would have been of interest to only some people. It was mainly a toilet stop.

A snack bar.

The small marina.

At this point the driver told us to take a picture of the menu for our lunch venue posted at the front of the bus so that we could order our selections ahead of time. He stressed that cash was preferred as they sometimes had problems with Internet connectivity there.

A few panoramas:

About an hour later driving roughly north and a little to the west we stopped at Carnlough to view the pretty little harbour.

Swivelling clockwise.

Harbour entrance.

Fishing gear.

Cynical me imagines the tourist office telling the fishermen hey can you leave your gear haphazardly on the pier so that tourists will take more pictures? 😀

Looking back at the village from the harbour wall.

There's a walkway on it.

Something soothing about reflections on calm water.

The walkway and wall goes all the way to the entrance.

Looking at the other side of the entrance.

The passage through the heads.

Panoramas:

About half an hour later and further along the coastal road we arrived at Cushendun Harbour. The Glendun River isn't terribly photogenic.

There is a Fisherman's Cottage there.

And a lot of holiday lodging.

But the real reason was to visit the Cushendun Caves, which have been used as a backdrop in the Game of Thrones TV series.

Now I must be one of the people in the minority who have never watched GoT, but I get it that some people are fascinated by the real-life locations used in the series.

It seems that our tour was a mix of the Giant's Causeway Tour and the Game of Thrones Tour to have enough numbers for the buses. I suspect there is a lot of overlap in sights across the tours.

A view from inside the cave.

Panoramas, in reverse order:

 

Now we headed inland for about 40 minutes to Bregagh Road. What's famous about that you ask? Well this is another GoT location called the Dark Hedges in the series.

In real life they are two rows of beech trees planted by the owner of the estate in 1775 to form an imposing entrance to his home.

We are walking along the road, but this was not always the case. In the past people drove through it, until experts found that traffic was compressing the soil and stressing the trees, so now visitors have to park in the car park and view on foot. Already some of the trees have succumbed to disease or been toppled by storms.

You can see there are gaps.

One of the better vantage points.

This one's pretty good too.

It was a pleasant walk but it took up almost all the time allocated for it and I had to walk briskly to regain the bus.

We headed north to Ballintoy, at the top of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, where we took lunch at the Fullerton Arms. I had brought some sandwiches in case lunch wasn't adequate so I just had soup and bread in the restaurant then ate my sandwiches in the garden at the back.

Finally we get to the main attraction. Giant's Causeway is near Bushmills. But first a commercial stop at the Bushmills Distillery.

Good place if you want to take some bottled Ireland home.

Our tour ticket included entry to the visitor's centre, which one isn't required to visit as access to the open-air geological feature is free. However the exhibits were quite interesting. We also got the use of headphones that would give us narrated background from various stations along the path.

Here you see the shuttle bus going downhill. One could elect to use the bus going back up if tired, but the service ceases at some hour.

This is the start of the downhill walk.

The causeway consists of basalt columns formed by geologic processes. You can read all about the scientific explanation, I won't repeat it here. The folk legend is more narratable though. As told by the guide on the bus and also the display in the centre, one variant goes like this: Finn McCool builds a causeway across the sea to challenge Benandonner in Scotland.

When he gets there he spies Benandonner and realises he's bigger than expected. He flees home, with Benandonner in pursuit.

Finn's wife, Sadhbh, who is a smart cookie, disguises Finn as a baby in a cradle. When Benandonner sees the "baby", he imagines the father must be huge, and flees back to Scotland, tearing up the causeway as he goes.

The legend may have sprung from the fact that identical columns created by the same geological process are found in Scotland, at Fingal's Cave.

However Fingal's Cave is not near the straits. I didn't know it before this trip, but Ireland and Scotland are separated by only 20 km of sea at the closest points. You really can see Scotland from Ireland from an elevated point.

What fascinates people is how regular the columns are, many hexagonal. Again science has the explanation for that.

Another view.

People loved to clamber over the columns and take lots of photos.

The columns continue inland so it's likely that erosion will wear down those in the water and expose more from the land.

Zooming in.

A bit of repose.

Many of the tops are concave due to horizontal fractures, but possibly also due to erosion by water and footsteps.

The path continues. For the keen it's possible to ascend to the top of the cliff and return to the centre that way. However we didn't have the time, and I didn't have the energy.

Here you can see exposed basalt columns.

I think these are the "organ pipes".

The giant's boot.

Panoramas, in reverse order:

If only it were as easy to go uphill as reversing the order of the panoramas. But it wasn't that strenuous, and the weather was good. I returned the headphones before the centre closed, then went up the rise to take photos of the bay.

A telephoto view to the other side.

The car park.

Panoramas:

Our tour took us to see one last sight, Dunluce Castle, or rather the ruins of. It looks even more forbidding in the late afternoon light.

In context:

And that was the end of the touring day. The drive back to Belfast was uneventful, we were all dropped off in the centre of the city, For dinner I stopped at a Japanese eatery on the route home (since it was a day ticket) and had eel bento. It was pretty good.