The Causeway Route - Northern Ireland

Monday 03 October

Happy birthday to Sylv's girlfriend Carleen. 

Overcast and cool again after a night of very strong winds, as we pack up to head north to travel the Causeway Route which loops around the top of Northern Ireland, from Belfast on the East Coast to Derry/Londonderry on the West Coast.  It is named after the Giant's Causeway in the Ballycastle area but still within the County of Antrim. There is a Scottish/Irish legend featuring giants to explain how the Causeway was formed, but science puts it down to molten basaltic lava flowing into the area some 60 million years ago.

Before we head off, Bill was asked to take part in a Tourism Northern Ireland survey to see how we were spending our time and money whilst here. Apparently a lot has been spent on tourism recently and they want to ensure it's paying off.

The first town we came to was Ballymena who in 1977 voted to remove all mention of Darwinism from religious education in their schools. On a brighter note, it is also the birthplace of actor Liam Neeson.  Next is Slemish, a volcanic outcrop where Ireland's patron St Patrick is said to have tended goats in the hills.

Carnlough is a cute little coastal town with lovely harbour and many limestone buildings commissioned by the Marqess of Londonderry in 1854. The white stone bridge across the main street once carried a railway line but is now a walkway leading to idealic spot, Cranny Falls.

We stopped at a picturesque spot on a cliff top at Ballintoy for lunch but it was up to Bill to get out of the van to take a few photos as it was freezing cold and blowing a gale. The attraction to photograph is the 20m long, 1m wide rope bridge between the sea cliffs and the small island of Carrick-a-Rede which has housed a salmon fishery for centuries. Each spring for the past 200 years the rope bridge is rebuilt so visitors can cross to enjoy the views of nearby Rathlin Island.

A little further up the coast is the very ruined and almost disappeared Dunseverick Castle. In its day it would have been the perfect location for spotting distant ships coming to attack.

Finally arriving at the car park above the Giant's Causeway, we were turned away by the parking attendant as they don't cater for motor homes. We were told to continue to the nearby town of Bushmills and catch a free return shuttle bus. Hopefully part of the 18 million pound development of the new Visitor Centre currently under way here will be parking for everyone.

As it was already late afternoon we decided to go directly to our camp site, Ballyness Caravan Park just outside Bushmill, and then take the short walk back into town to visit the Bushmill Whiskey Distillery. Suddenly the sun was out and it was a glorious afternoon. 

The Distillery was granted its licence in 1608, and is the world's oldest. The whiskey is made from Irish barley, water from the purest sources and aged in oak barrels. Interestingly, the barrels initially start life in America (Bourdon), Spain (Sherry), or Portugal (Madeira). So after a couple of years in their first use, they are then sent to Bushmills, as the oak will take up these aromas and the flavours will be imbibed into the whiskey. The Bushmill whiskey is triple distilled compared to double by most other distilleries, giving it a unique taste.

At the end of the tour of the distillery we were rewarded with a sample. Bill chose a shot of 10 year aged and Sylvi a hot toddy containing cinnamon, cloves, sugar and hot water. Very smooth and cleaner then Scottish whiskey which is still very nice but has more of a smokey flavour.

Tuesday 04 October

Cold and overcast, though the prediction is for no rain today which is great as we're visiting the Giant's Causeway and catch the shuttle bus to get there. We're still in our rain and thermal gear just in case.

Though this is the low season, there is still a steady flow of tourists coming and going to visit this amazing natural phenomenon caused by basalt, solidified lava forming columns which cracked when it cooled 60 million years ago. 

Many columns remain but a lot have broken off into large chunks which cover the ground like giant pavers.  It is hard to convey the grandeur of this amazing place, so stand by for a few photos. 

The site is administered by the National Trust who are trying to minimise further erosion as well as ensure public safety by closing off a now unsafe part of the walkway around the site. 

 We were still able to walk a fair distance around the cliffs and were totally amazed by the structures, one of which looks like a giant's boot thus lending some truth to the fable of the giant Finn MacCool being responsible for the Causeway.

We absolutely loved our visit and stayed as long as we wanted even though the wind and occasional flashes of rain tried to hurry us away.

Not far from where the shuttle bus dropped us back in Bushmill was the most unusual statue we've ever seen called the Alphabet Angel.  Each part on the statue had a special meaning from the large letter A held in the right hand meaning “alpha” the commencement of communication to the heart symbol on the backpack representing the heart of the people, the spirit of language. It certainly was food for thought.

After lunch we explored a little more of Bushmills, walking the main street lined with shops and across the flowing River Bush to find a salmon station not far from a beautiful church. It's really a lovely little town with lots of cute houses but also a lot of closed and boarded up houses and shops which is pretty normal as we've seen in other areas.

The winds got up again overnight and are supposed to increase further in the next day or so to around 50mph which is pretty scary at night in the motor home.

Wednesday 05 October

Happy birthday to David R. Raining and cold as we packed up and headed towards the County of Derry, but not too far up the road near Portrush were the ruins of Dunluce Castle built around the 16^th century and located on the most perfect location to spot any enemies coming by ship.

Dunluce was the grand Renaissance manor of the MacDonnell family, the earls of Antrim from 1620. The story goes that part of the house including the kitchen, 7 staff and that night's dinner fell into the waters below in 1639. Because the weather was so inhospitable we just took a couple of photos and carried on our way.

In the Scottish and Irish caravan parks we've stayed at so far, we've seen a lot of relocatable cabins/homes which are either permanent accommodation or for holiday rental. As we drove along the coast towards Castlerock we saw 3 large parks full of them. This is obviously a great beach location and attracts a lot of surfers and holiday makers in the high season.

DownhillEstate at Castlerock was the palatial home from 1774 of the eccentric Bishop of Derry, Frederick Augustus Hervey. It burnt down in 1851, was rebuilt in 1876 and finally abandoned after World War II. The National Trust now owns it, but even they weren't here today as the official visiting season finished 2 days ago. That didn't deter us being NT members and the car park at the Lions Gate was open anyway.

The original estate covered 160 acres and includes extensive gardens which we would have loved to visit on a clearer day. The Dovecote and Icehouse built to house doves in the upper level and meat in the lower, cooler level is a round, squat tower still pretty much intact. Dove feathers were used to stuff pillows and their dung for gunpowder.

Heading up the path towards the precipice of the cliff is the almost perfect Mussenden Temple which was the Earl's library. It looks Grecian with surrounding columns and other ornate plaster decorations. Apparently a fire was constantly kept burning in the lower level to ensure a perfect temperature for the books housed in the library upstairs.

It really is magnificent but much of the cliff in front has been eroded so we hope everything will be done to ensure this beautiful part of history never suffers the same fate.

The main house, Downhill, is now a ruin but you still get an idea of how large the home was and several rooms have been identified and marked. The front stairs and facades are still intact and show off the grandiosity.

By now we were totally drenched and had almost been blown off the cliff several times so decided we'd done about as much as could be expected of a tourist on such a day and got back on the road.

The town of Derry/Londonderry always has the (/) because the Nationalists wanted it to be called Derry and the Unionists wanted to keep Londonderry as royal charter granted in 1631, so to keep everyone happy it always appears as both. The city walls completed in 1619 are the only ones in Ireland to remain almost intact and never breached.

This city has seen much strife over the centuries and probably the most famous is Bloody Sunday on 30 January 1972 when 14 civilians were shot dead by the army following an illegal protest against the new law allowing internment without trial. But before this, the city walls were closed off to any law enforcement from August 1969 following civil right clashes to July 1972. The city renamed itself Free Derry during this period.

We walked the length of the wall which stretches past many churches, halls, monuments and contains many restored canons. It is certainly much wider then the one we visited in Rothenburg, Germany, but just as fascinating. A couple of guard posts still remain from which Jacobite invaders would have been observed in 1688.

From the wall you can see Bogside, the area on the exterior where 11 murals immortalise the events of Bloody Sunday, and where the event took place. In Antrim and Belfast we saw the police stations surrounded by high wire fences. Here we saw an armoured police car patrolling the streets which signals to us that possible trouble is never far from the surface.  Although there are also peace sculptures throughout the town.

The city council building – Guildhall – is also to the exterior of the wall and getting a facelift at the moment but still open to visitors. 

We were able to look inside the council chamber on the ground floor and peak in the upstairs reception hall where some senior citizens were enjoying old-time dancing. This room is beautifully decorated with bulky chandeliers, red velour furnishings and magnificent stained glass windows.

By this time we needed to head on and find a camp site, the listings for which were proving difficult to find but the Tourist Information Centre recommend one 10 minutes away.

The Elaghvale Camping Park is in its infancy to say the least. It is an established park, but currently very basic as they construct other facilities due to open next year. The older gentleman who greeted us was very obliging but there are many negatives and we're glad it's only for one night.


And that brings us to the end of the Causeway Route.  More photos here.


Tomorrow we head over the border to the Republic of Ireland.

Belfast & Beyond

Friday 30 September

Up early and set off to book in for our P&O ferry crossing from Cairnryan to Larne in the North of Ireland. Our plan is to send about three weeks travelling around the island of Ireland, starting with Northern Ireland, and then the Republic of Ireland, travelling anti-clockwise from Belfast to Dublin.

Even though we crossed so many borders in Europe, this was the first time our motor home was inspected by customs and security staff – underneath with a mirror, inside the living area and inside the garage. Obviously they were checking for excess alcohol, cigarettes and the like but we're sure also for more sinister things too.

The 2 hour crossing was quite pleasant and uneventful on the P&O European Causeway - we even had some sun until the ferry docked.  We then set off towards Antrim, a half hour away, to our camp site – Six Mile Water Caravan Park. This site is a half hour's train ride to Belfast which we'll do tomorrow but for now we visit the town a short walk away.

To get there we walk through what was centuries ago the grounds of the Antrim Castle (1861) where only a tower remains after the castle was destroyed in 1922 when a fire broke out during a gala ball. There is some restoration work going on in the area so there is a lot of bog due to the rains as well.

Antrim seems a nice little town though the local shopping centre is a bit ho hum with lots of low price shops. There are several churches of various denominations and 3 funeral parlours within a very short distance of each other.

Lucky we went for this exploratory walk as it took us longer then planned to find the railway station and tomorrow the trains only come every 2 hours, so if we miss the 9:27am train we would not be happy.

Saturday 01 October

Surprisingly, Bill can find very little tourist friendly information on Google relating to Belfast. For instance he couldn't see the train stations so we weren't sure where to get off – as usual Central Station is not in the centre of the city. So we took the advice of a grandfather on a day trip with his grandson to visit the museum and got off when he did.

Turns out there is a HOHO and we're glad for it because the attractions are very widely spread out. Plus it was live commentary with a very witty Belfast born lady.

Firstly the Titanic Quarter which once housed a very productive ship building area and of course where the infamous ship was built. At the peak, Belfast employed 35,000 men in the ship building industry. The area has been recently revived with the construction of many apartment buildings and will come back into it's own in 2012 when the new Titanic Exhibit opens to mark the 100 year anniversary of its construction. The building is in the shape of a star – the White Star Line built the Titanic – but also has aspects of the bow of a ship and will contain interactive displays, a dining room resembling that of the original on the ship and much memorabilia.

Belfast is very proud of the fact that the ship “was ok when it left here” and looks forward to this exhibit once again livening up this docks area.

As we approached East Belfast, our guide started telling us about the outbreak of The Troubles in 1969. We were told the Troubles weren't about religion but politically motivated. The Unionists wanted to remain under British rule and the Nationalist wanted independence. But the majority of Unionists were Protestant and the Nationalists Catholic, so it was obviously a religious fight too.

We drove through a rather posh housing area where judges and lawyers lived under 24 hour security for fear of being bombed. Not far from this is the beautiful and highly guarded Parliament Building at Stormont. Completed in 1932 it was the seat of power for Northern Ireland for 40 years. It is almost laughable that in May 2007, two men who had fought in opposite camps for decades, Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness, were sworn in as first minister and deputy. The building is completely white so during World War II it was darkened by using coal and manure so the German bombers wouldn't know how close they were to the city, because apparently Belfast was the second most bombed city during that war.

The horror tour continued as we came to Falls and Shankill Roads where several buildings and walls are covered in artistic murals relating to the Troubles. 24 “Peace Walls” were erected to separate both sides and try to prevent missiles of all description from being hurled at each other. Totally crazy and amazingly, the 24^th Wall was only erected last year, so the animosity obviously continues today. Just like the Berlin Wall, there used to be guarded check points into the city centre where everyone entering had to be body searched and bags xrayed. After hearing a disturbing news item about a suspicious package being found near the city yesterday, we kinda wish the searches continued today.

After all that doom and gloom, it was nice to drive past the gorgeous Queen's University where C.S Lewis, the author of The Witch, the Lionand the Wardrobe (published 1950) was educated. Here you can explore the room dedicated to The Chronicles of Narnia before taking the path to the Ulster Museum and Botanic Gardens next door.

A gentleman on the tour told us we should check out the Merchant Hotel which serves delicious high teas in the foyer, so once off the HOHO we went for a look. It was once the headquarters of the Ulster Bank (1858) and is heritage listed. The exterior is magnificent but the interior is out of this world. The gold, the detail, the gorgeous furnishings. It's almost like a palace and holds the Guinness Book of Records for making the most expensive cocktail in the world.

After that, we made our way to the Belfast Cathedral, which now has the Spire of Hope protruding 40 metres into the sky, and which descends through the ceiling above the choir stalls - it was added as part of a redevelopment of the Cathedral Quarter in 2007, and is illuminated at night to great effect.

The other feature of the Cathedral is the extraordinary colored glass tile mosaics that took two sisters 7 years to create.

We then moved on to check out the Belfast City Hall, the Belfast Opera House, and the Europa Hotel, which has the dubious unoffical title of the most bombed hotel in the world, suffering 28 bomb attacks during the troubles. 

Finally, we just had to have a drink at the famous Crown Liquor Saloon (1885). Legend has it that the publican, Patrick Flanagan, a Catholic wanted to give it another name but his wife, a Protestant wanted the Crown in honour of the British monarchy. She won but he got his own back by placing a tiled floor mosaic of a crown at the entrance where customers would walk on it everyday. 

The interior has loads of stained and cut glass, mirrors and mahogany and cute wooden “snugs” in which groups of about 10 can close themselves away for private gatherings. These have 4 gunmetal plates fixed to the panels for striking matches (when smoking was permitted) and a call button for reordering drinks without having to get up (those don't work anymore). It's a fairly small place but cosy and very popular with locals and tourists alike, and is now owned and run by the National Trust.

It is true that the Guinness in Ireland tastes so much better then what we are served in Australia.  By then it was time to catch the train home and we probably won't return tomorrow as the trains only come every 3 hours and nothing opens until around 1pm anyway.

Sunday 02 October

Happy birthday to Sylvi's brother Robert and her girlfriend Fiona. Cold and overcast but not raining. We watched Ireland beat Italy in the rugby and caught up on which teams had been victorious back home in the AFL and NRL. The rest of the morning we slopped around and Sylvi was once again frustrated with the laundry facilities.

We had lunch at the local cafe overlooking the Lough Neagh (lake) where the Maid of Antrim (1963) comes and goes several times taking guests for a Sunday afternoon cruise. Afterwards a short stroll along a trail around the Lough proved too boggy so we headed back into Antrim town for a bit more of a look around. What we did notice was the terrible amount of litter not only along the trail but also in the Lough. There is a 100 pound fine for littering but this doesn't seem to have deterred people which is a shame as it looks terrible.

It ended up being quite a long walk which included a visit to the RoundTower (10^th century) the only thing remaining of a monastic settlement, the Witch's Stone (lots of belief in witches, fairies and giants in these parts), the Barbican Gate which was once the main entrance to the Castle, the Old Courthouse (now council building and Information Centre) and back to the Castle Gardens where there is also a small burial ground for the Massereene and Ferrard family who occupied the Castle between 1610 and 1922.

We've walked through these gardens on several occasions now and each time Sylvi has been fascinated by what might be going on behind some scaffolding where only the tops of an old building can be seen. It turns out this old building is Clotworthy House (1840) the once coach house and stables of the Castle. There is much renovation and addition going on to attract more tourists to this town.

Belfast was enjoyable, and the City is clearly trying hard to catch up on it's development after the 30 years of Troubles, but the impact of the troubles is still evident in pockets of the society, as evidenced by the reactions in the papers to Martin McGuinness nominating for President in the elections to be held at the end of October, the attempt to set off a bomb in downtown Belfast while we were there, and the ongoing need to continue to build so-called peace walls in the trouble areas - walls that make the Berlin Wall look like a picket fence.  Hopefully the progress continues aplenty.

More photos here.