Northern Ireland Coastal Causeway

We have been enjoying a fabulous weekend on the northern coast of Ireland in County Atrim. Our timing was perfect because this weekend was probably the nicest of the year so far. It was great to see all the people out enjoying it on walks with a lot of dogs. We were also lucky in that we didn't realize there is a big sporting event coming this next week. The North West 200 Motorcycle Race starts Tuesday and all the coastal roads will be closed.

Our first stop on Saturday was Dunluce Castle ruins.

This castle is perched right on the edge of the cliff. The first castle here was built in the 13th century by Richard Óg de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster.

The castle was later rebuilt and fortified by the McQuillan family in 1513.

Later the castle was taken by Clan MacDonnell of the Scottish MacDonnell's. They continued improvements and built a "Scottish Plantation town" next to the castle. It was a marvel of it's day at the time, with planned roads and indoor toilets.

The town was destroyed during the Irish 1641 uprising. It was largely forgotten except for a medieval fair that was held on the site for the next centuries. Archeological excavations started in 2011. They estimate 95%s of the town is still to be uncovered.

These fortified towers are the iconic of the castle and the oldest known part of the ruins.

The view of the sea from up here is simply amazing. The colors are unreal.

View out of the castle to the north with a dive boat in the foreground.

Sea arches add an extra level of awesomeness.

East of Dunluce is an overlook to Carrick-a-Rede and it's locally famous rope bridge. It's about a half hour walk out to the bridge but unfortunately the bridge was closed due to "covid related staff shortages". That's good for Ed. He's no fan of heights but would have been compelled to go so as not to miss out on the experience. We also balked at the 5 pound parking fee at the trail head.

Closeup where you can see the bridge.

These grazing sheep sure have the view. This is the same viewpoint above Carrick-a-Rede.

Just down the coast from Carrick-a-Rede down a narrow winding road is the little harbor of Ballintoy. In addition to being picturesque it is one of the main filming locations in Game of Thrones. It was where several scenes involving Pyke and the Iron Islands including Theon's baptism and Euron's drowning and rebirth.

We finished the Saturday touring with a stop at Dark Hedges, another Game of Thrones filming location. This beech lined road was planted by the Stuart family in the 18th century to impress visitors as they approached Gracehill House. It was Kingsroad in Season 2, Episode 1 when Arya escapes King's Landing. It was also the only time we competed with the tour buses. I'm sure they are no where close to pre-covid crowds but we had the place to ourselves until 3 tour buses showed up. It kind of distracts from the ambience.

We've had so much great food here in Ireland. A real mix between traditional Irish food and international cuisine. Saturday morning we found a bakery that had rhubarb crumbles and we met Natalia. First of all, we haven't found rhubarb in Thailand and we love it so, it was a real treat. Second, it turns out that Natalia was teaching English in Thailand when covid shut down the world. Then in getting to know her, Barbara asked where is a good place for dinner. She gave us several seafood suggestions but said we could also come to her restaurant. It turns out she not only works at the bakery during the morning, she manages Ocho Tappas in the evening. We had just a couple dishes. They were large for what I think of as Tappas. In fact, on a side note, Barbara said she liked being here because people in Ireland look like us. I was shocked because I knew she is not prejudiced by race. Turns out what she meant was the Irish people are heavy like we are, not like the skinny Thai people :) We've noticed portions here are huge, just like America. We're learning to split meals.

Large or not, these dishes were spectacular. The first is lamb chops served with mozzarella and pomegranate. The second is monk fish and scallops served with a shrimp salad. For desert we finished the day as we started with rhubarb pie served with rhubarb compote and vanilla ice cream.

Sunday morning we drove to Bushmills to have a full Ulster Fry at Mike's Coffee Shop. Alloy Dee!! Mike's wife is Phatsaya from Nakhon Ratchasima in Thailand. She had a nice Thai menu that included Pad Kapow. It would have been interesting to see how she did using local vegetables in her Thai dishes. No time this trip but good to know.

By the way, the Bushmills Distillery was closed this weekend so we missed that. I really like the little town of Bushmills.

Next stop was Giant's Causeway. This is a natural formation caused when a volcanic flow cooled in a specific way. It's only found in this one location. I read that it was formed much like a dry lake bed cracks when the water is gone.

The ancient Irish didn't know what to make of it. They decided giants built a causeway to Scotland which is visible across the water. it does look like a road when viewed from above. It was a long walk down to the site and back up to the parking area. We paid to park at the hotel and missed the actual official entrance. That meant we missed the opportunity to get a bus ride back to the top. We got our exercise in for sure.

We had to have some Fish and Chips while we are here and it didn't disappoint. Local Cod combined with the Irish expertise in preparing potatoes makes for something special. We like the play on words of this one we ate at in Bushmills.

After lunch we headed to the west along the coastal causeway. Coleraine is the "big city" of the region. It was very quiet but it was Sunday. Most businesses would be closed Sunday or open only from 1pm to 5pm on any Sunday. The picturesque River Mann flows through town.

On the west side of Coleraine is the the little town of Castlerock. It's another seaside town with a great sandy beach. There were many, many families at the beach on this beautiful Mother's Day.

The last stop on our touring was the Downhill Estate. It was built by the Earl-Bishop of Ulster in 1775. He picked this rather bleak peninsula because he thought his castle would look even more spectacular. By all accounts he succeeded.

The Earl-Bishop apparently had a sense of humor and put flour on the floors at night to be able to see who was visiting who in the dark of the night. The monument on the lower right above was built for his brother and Musssenden Temple perched right on the edge of the cliff was built as a beacon for sailors and his personal library. At one time the temple was set far enough back that you could ride a carriage behind it but now it is in danger of falling into the sea.

From the temple looking to the north you see Magilligan Strand (beach) stretching all the way to border with Republic of Ireland's County Donegal.

All along the causeway we could see preparations for the North West 200. A big motorcycle street racing competition starting tomorrow. We were so lucky because next week most of the coastal causeway we explored will be closed. We'll try to catch some of it on BBC Sports though. It would be fun to see the race now that we somewhat know the area.

We didn't want to compete for restaurants with the race enthusiasts that are coming into town for the race. We decided to make dinner at home in our AirBnB home that we're staying at.

We had lamb shanks in minted gravy with spinach tortellini, thanks to Tesco prepared food dishes. This place has a well equipped kitchen so the dish to bake the lamb and the pot to boil the tortellini were readily available.

Eating at home means drinking at home and we had a wide variety of interesting drinks. From left to right we have a Scottish Gin drink made with rhubarb and ginger, a special 1801 recipe from Guinness for a West Indian Porter, a Portugal Port, a Spanish Sherry, a Scottish Ginger Beer and a Gin and Tonic with orange from Seville.

This morning we're having some O'Conner's coffee and soon we'll be heading out to explore the walled city of Derry.