IRELAND and SCOTLAND - Day 12 - October 12, 2023

GIANT WALK, ‘PLEASANT’ WALK, HEDGE WALK - Day 12 - October 12, 2023

Our hotel is right on Main Street in the Portrush town centre. Our room looks out onto the North Atlantic sea. We slept with the windows open last night and the soothing sound of waves crashing along the shore.

This morning, we drove east out of town on the A2 Causeway road. We passed Royal Portrush Golf Links (site of a recent British Open golf tournament), the Dunluce townsite (ruins of 17th century village on the cliffs), and on toward the Giant’s Causeway.

The parking lot attendant at the Giant’s Causeway told us we couldn’t park at the visitor center without an advance reservation, but we did get to park at the nearby boathouse lot. We took a short walk back to the start of the trail system. The ‘Red Trail’ was the longest and steepest of the three choices, so we picked that one. By taking the top of the cliff trail first, we were able to descend the steepest part down to the beach and avoid a lot of the climbing.

This spot is like California’s Devil’s Postpile on steroids. The basaltic columns are huge and plentiful. The stepping stone structures going out toward the surf are quite impressive and not so easy to navigate.

After a little over 5 miles of walking the Giant’s Causeway trails, we got in the car to continue east on A2 to the ‘rope bridge’ at Carrick-a-Rede. 

Karen checked the internet for details and saw a prominent warning on the web page explaining  that you shouldn’t even think about trying to cross the bridge unless you have already reserved and paid for a ticket online. Those without tickets could still walk out to the bridge, but not cross it.

After some discussion among our group, we decided to go over and do the walk anyway. Karen also looked at Rick Steve’s guide book, which described the one mile walk out to the bridge as ‘a pleasant 30 minute walk’.

When we got to the nearly empty parking lot, we asked the attendant if we’d be able to walk across the bridge even without a reservation. He said no problem and off we went (after paying for tickets).

The present day rope bridge is a tourist version of the rope and plank bridge that salmon fishermen used back in the old days to get out onto the Carrick-a-Rede (rock in the road) to retrieve their fishing nets.

The bridge is short at 60’, but high at 100’ over the water below. It has that unsettling rope bridge sway about it, especially with a stiff sea breeze blowing.

The path getting to and from the bridge is also relatively short, but it makes up for it in elevation change. By the time Karen got back to the car, she was vowing to get with Rick Steves about his description of the walk.

Next was a short ride over to the ‘Dark Hedges’. This is one of several locations in Northern Ireland where filming took place for the TV series, ‘Game of Thrones’. To get there, we turned south through rolling fields divided by hedgerows. The road itself was a narrow lane lined on both sides by hedgerows. Every curve in the road was a blind curve.

Once we got there, we were a little underwhelmed by the Dark Hedges. The line of tall beech trees that form a canopy over the road look great, but I think the effect is not the same in person as it is as seen through the camera lens of professional film cinematographers.

Tomorrow is an air travel day, as we bid farewell to Ireland and say hello to Scotland.

NEXT: Scotland