The Dark Hedges

We originally looked at a train tour of Ireland and that tour had included an excursion from Dublin through Northern Ireland. When we decided to rent a car, we found a tour that would take us to Northern Ireland since otherwise it would be six hours of driving. We stopped first at The Dark Hedges, made famous as The King's Road in the TV show "Game of Thrones". It is a road lined with beech trees planted in the 18th century as an entrance to the Stuart mansion, Gracehill. The road was not as impressive as we thought it would be as the trees did not really cover the road. Also, because it was a working road with numerous tour buses going down it, you had to walk on the side of the road most of the time.

Carrick-a-rede

As we reached the north coast of Northern Ireland, we stopped at Carrick-a-Rede and its famous rope bridge. The rope bridge was originally built in 1755 by salmon fisherman so they could reach the island of Carrickarede. The bridge is 20 meters long and 30 meters high.

Crossing the Bridge

The walk to the bridge was close to a mile and then we had to queue at the top to cross the bridge. The bridge itself was a little disappointing as the stairs to the bridge were far scarier than the bridge, but once out on the island, the views were fantastic. From the island, we could view Rathlin Island and Scotland across the way.

After about 30 minutes, we queued to cross the bridge again and began to walk back up to the car park. The walk was mostly uphill with stairs and was quite exhausting. When we made it back to the car park, we grabbed some drinks and a couple of brownies and re-boarded the Paddywagon bus.

Giant's Causeway

Our next stop was Giant's Causeway on the far north coast of the Irish island. On our way, our driver told us the legend of Finn McCool, the Irish giant who built the hexagonal rocks as a bridge across the sea so he could take on the Scottish giant Benandonner. In reality the Causeway is aftermath of volcanic crashing, burning and cooling, that created over 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, each in a hexagonal pattern.

Giant's Foot

From the visitor's center, we did the mile walk down to the Giant's Foot where we walked out onto the rocks. This is really an incredible site to see as it is hard to believe these perfect hexagons were simply created by nature and not man-made.

Alex and J. R. hiked back uphill to the visitor's center while Janie and Rebecca took the bus (and the boys beat the girls up the hill due to how long it took to load the bus. After that, we spent time in the visitor's center learning more about the geology and history of this area.

Belfast

We arrived next in Belfast. For Janie and J. R., when we think of Belfast, we remember the TV images from the 1970s and 1980s of the "Troubles" and IRA car bombings. But years later, one would never know that period existed as the city has recovered beautifully. We were dropped off at Belfast City Hall in the heart of the city. Our bus driver had recommended Victoria Mall with its 360 degree panoramic view of the city so we walked there and took in the views from the glass dome atop the mall. We had hoped to find a pub to have a drink, but it was rather early and most places had not yet opened for dinner, so instead we strolled through a few shops and hung out at City Hall until it was time to leave.

After Belfast, we boarded the bus for the drive back to Dublin. On the way our driver provided us with additional stories about how Ireland came to be divided into two countries and the politics between Ireland and Northern Ireland/UK. We arrived back in Dublin and were dropped back off at Paddy's Palace. We walked back to our car and drove to the Holiday Inn. We arrived back just in time to get dinner at the Crowne Plaza next door. Unfortunately, they didn't allow kids in the bar area after hours but they served food in the foyer, so we had a few burgers and a beer before turning in for the night.