Belfast; Sunday, 09 November, 2008

An early rise today as I had booked onto a tour up to Northern Irelands most visited tourist attraction.

Having been picked up in the centre of Belfast we headed north along the coast road. Stopping briefly in Carrickfergus to have a look around the outside of the castle, before continuing north.

We carried along the stunning coastline (ignoring the not particularly pleasant port town of Larne) up to Carnlough where we had a brief comfort stop, from there we continued along the coast as it turned from being North South to East West and the waters changed from the Irish Sea to the North Atlantic, through the towns of Cushendall, Glenariff and Cushendun. Just beyond Ballycastle we pulled into the car park for the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. Sadly, the bridge had closed for the season the previous weekend, but as our driver noted, this was the first time in many weeks that we had such a stunning view, as it was the first time it hadn’t been raining or misty.

In front of us was Rathlin Island, and clearly visible behind it were the brooding hills of the Mull of Kintyre on Scotland. The views from here were spectacular and having taken our fill of the views (and the strong icy winds!) we clambered back onto the coach and onto our main destination of the day.

Formed millions of years through the slow cooling of lava, the Basalt columns of the Giants Causeway are instantly recognisable, and one of the natural wonders of the world. The Causeway is totally open to the public, and the National Trust which run the site are perfectly happy for people to clamber all over the columns (Basalt being one of the hardest rocks on the planet it would take some serious work to actually cause damage to the site!) and on a windy day with large waves crashing over the end of the causeway it makes for a truly breathtaking activity (and body-temperature-taking!)

After a good 90 minutes or so around the Causeway I wandered back up to the visitors centre to get a bite to eat before we all had to head back to the coach to start the journey back to Belfast.

On the way back we stopped off in the town of Bushmills, home to the oldest licensed distillery in Ireland (visitors centre had closed the previous weekend… I’m sensing a pattern developing!) to have a look around the distillery shop. From there it was a brief photo stop at Dunluce Castle and at the beach in Portballintrae before heading back down the motorway to Belfast.

Still slightly chilled from the time out at the Causeway and exhausted from all the clambering over ancient monument, I grabbed a quick bite in the city centre before heading back to the hotel.