Our Travel Journal: Bally Castle, Northern Ireland; Carrick-a-Rede rope Bridge; Dark Hedges; Dunluce Castle

There has been a "Carrick-a-Rede" suspension bridge for over 200 years. Originally it was built by the fisherman who used to net fish off this small volcanic sea stack. They needed a way to bring in the catch (in good years 300 fish per day) back to the mainland. The Irish have not fished for salmon here since 1990. But, now an upgraded pedestrian suspension bridge, which still swings in the wind, is there for the tourists. I suspect the workers at this site, would have been fishers in the past. Our AirBnB is only a few minutes from this site, so early in the morning we headed over to the bridge. It is a pleasant 30 minutes walk from the parking lot to the bridge and I got there before anyone else. I had the bridge and sea stack to myself for about 15 minutes. This is a site heavily visited by tour busses, so the privacy in this beautiful and wild place was an unexpected and much appreciated bonus.

Sunrise view from our AirBnB

The Bridge

Looking down from the bridge. 90 feet above the Atlantic Ocean

View back to mainland N. Ireland

from the sea stack

We stopped by the town of Portrush. Portrush is the summer resort town with lots of seaside guesthouses and an amusement park on the pier. We also saw the famous Portrush Golf Course which has hosted the British Open in the past. We stopped for coffee and a scone, watched some wet-suited surfers and kite-surfers. With the temperatures in the mid fifties these were committed surfers.

Portrush has a serious sand beach.

The "Dark Hedges" is a beautiful avenue of beech trees 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. In fact, the iconic trees have been used as a filming location in HBO's epic series "Game of Thrones", representing the Kingsroad.

The ruins of Dunluce Castle are balanced dramatically on a sea cliff separated from the mainland by a deep gorge and accessible now as it always has been only by a drawbridge. It has been coveted by the powerful in the area, the MacDonnells, the MacQuillans, the King of England and the property has been passed back and forth a number of times. In 1693 part of the castle (the kitchen) fell into the sea undercut by the constant wave action. The countess of Antrim (a MacDonnell) had had enough. The household was moved inland to Glenarm Castle where to this day the MacDonnell's seat remains. We toured this site, and even as a ruins it was impressive.