North Antrim Cliff Walk

The location of our cottage worked out so well, it was a total fluke.  I just booked this a few days ago and as it turns out, our cottage was just a short walk from White Park Bay, where we started our cliff top walk.  It was full sun this morning, so we left our car at the cottage full of our luggage and took off on foot down the road to White Park Bay.

There must be a lot of rabbits around here as I saw one dart across the road and then we came upon a road-kill rabbit a bit further on.  The tide was going out so it worked out that we could walk along White Park Bay, otherwise, it is not passable, and you have to take the highway.

We met some locals walking their dogs, so we stopped to have a chat.  At the end of White Park Bay, we had to walk along some rocks that were slick with seaweed and super treacherous, so we had to be very careful.  Then we gained elevation to the top of the cliffs, and the scenery was spectacular.  The cliffs are a straight drop off to the sea, but the path has us walk on the outside of the fence, near the drop off, whereas, the sheep are on the inside of the fence.

White Park Bay

There are many sheep and a lot of lambs.  Sheep are somewhat bizarre, as they will stop and stare as we approach, and then they go rouge.  The lambs will then come tearing across the grass to their mom and pummel her for milk.

View from limestone arch

Vivid green landscape

Dunseverick Castle

Coastal view

Our walk ended at the Giant’s Causeway, which is a very touristy and a very busy area.  We approached via the cliffs and were somewhat amazed at how small the basalt formations are, given the huge attention they get.

It took about 3 hours to walk the cliff path to Giant’s Causeway, it was a distance of about 12 km or so.  We needed to catch the Ulsterbus back to White Park Bay.  I had printed a schedule and we noted that a bus was departing near the Giant’s Causeway at 1:10, but the next bus was not due until 3:10.  We needed to catch the 1:10 bus, so it was decision time, do we play it safe and just continue on the cliff path to the Visitor’s Centre or do we descend the Shepard’s Steps, of which there are 162, down to the Giant’s Causeway.  We decided to take the steps and quickly have a look around and then rush off to the bus stop, although we were not certain of the location of the bus stop or the Visitor’s Centre, for that matter.

Guards are standing around the Causeway to prevent people from walking up to the top of some of the basalt columns, so we asked her about the bus stop and how long it would take us to walk to the Visitor’s Centre.  She gave us explicit directions, which was exactly what we needed.  After walking around very briefly at the Causeway, we took off as fast as we could up the road to the Visitor’s Centre at the cliff top.

In all honesty, we did not understand the hype with regard to the Giant’s Causeway.  It was very busy, and the majority of the tourists were ambling around with the ubiquitous audio guides, that seem to be at every tourist site.  There were also shuttle buses to take people down to see the basalt columns and then return them to the Visitor’s Centre.  The walk took us about 10 minutes, but we were flooring it, as we were desperate to get the 1:10 bus.

At the bus stop we met three young women from Alaska, who are on a 6-week tour of Ireland, they are using public transport, as people under 25 years of age get up-charged for car rental.

On the bus, we told the driver we wanted to go to White Park Bay, he told us the charge and we paid him directly.  Even though the road is narrow, the bus driver just pinned it, we laughed hysterically at this, and we got to our bus stop on the highway outside of White Park Bay in 6 minutes, recall the walk took us 3 hours.  This all worked out so well, as all we had to do was cross the highway and walk up the road to our car at the cottage.  The road-kill rabbit was in terrible condition by now as the birds had been at it.

The owner of the cottage highly recommended that we reward ourselves with a coffee at the place just down the hill on the highway.  We drove there and the parking lot was full and the place was packed, the only spot left was a couch with a coffee table, sitting across from two other people on a couch.  The place was cleverly named ‘Coffee Bothy’ and it was an awesome place.  Since we don’t really keep track of time, it dawned on us that it was 1:30 and most people were in for lunch.

John and I don’t drink a lot of coffee, but we are developing a cappuccino addiction in Ireland.  Every cappuccino has been so good, it must be the water.  A lot of the wait staff we have encountered are young men, and they are excellent.  There is a wood stove in the Coffee Bothy and it kicked out a lot of heat, so it was nice and toasty in there after our walk.

The majority of patrons were elderly, and they were all dressed impeccably well.  The women have perfectly quaffed hair, blazers, jewellery, etc.  Of course, John and I were in hiking gear with mud splashed pants, muddy boots and my wire hair has gone berserk due to the humidity here.  We basically looked like we were extras from Game of Thrones or something.

Giant's Causeway

Speaking of Game of Thrones, omg, the elder man we met on the summit of Slieve Donard, told us that he has seen people dressed in black robes in one of the forest parks near Newcastle, it was a tourist Game of Thrones thing, and we all thought that it was odd.  However, it appears as though an entire tourist industry based on Game of Thrones is happening in Northern Ireland, as some of it is filmed here.  We noticed a sign board at Murlough going on about Game of Thrones, but we ignored it.

After we left Coffee Bothy, we drove a short distance to Ballintoy harbour to have a look at the bay and we noticed across the way, that there were people in black attire, holding plastic shields and swords.  They walked up to a tour bus which conducted Game of Thrones tours.  Apparently, quite a few scenes were shot at Ballintoy harbour.

Ballintoy Harbour

We made a few stops along the coastal drive, to see Dunluce Castle and Magheracross.  Then we took off for Co. Donegal in the Republic of Ireland.  Back in the Republic of Ireland, they actually have speed signs and everything is in km, which makes it a lot easier as the car speedometer is in km.

Dunluce Castle

The owner of the cottage we are staying at in Donegal, suggested we grocery shop en route and told us which town to stop in and what store to visit.  This was really good advice as it was getting late, as usual, we spend way more time viewing the landscape and then end up arriving in the evening.  The level of service you receive in Ireland is unreal.  We didn’t have a 1 GBP coin for the grocery cart so we went to customer service to get change and the staffer just handed us her employee id with a cart fob that would unlock the cart, then we just returned her id with fob.  John and I just about fell over, and then fell all over ourselves thanking her.

Then we accosted the young produce clerk for romaine lettuce and he took off to check in the back, even though he was pretty sure they were out, and they were.  Then we couldn’t find the garlic and he took us to the garlic/ginger section.  Then we crossed into the Republic and needed a bank machine to get Euros to pay for our cottage.  It was dark, so we drove around but couldn’t find any bank, so I took off into a restaurant and asked the kitchen men who were behind a counter making food.  Both responded and told me the bank machine was just down the street right beside the Chemists.  We got our Euros and were finally on our way to the cottage.  Luckily, the owner gave excellent directions and we found our way in the dark.  She came right over and showed us how everything works.

The Irish outfit their cottages to a very high degree, this one has everything we could possibly need.  John was celebrating the fact that there is both a salad spinner and a stick blender, so he can make his fabulous caesar salad dressing.

We have had two completely terrific days on the Antrim coast with outstanding views and great weather.  The cashier in the grocery store told us that Donegal is amazing for landscape, so we are looking forward to the week we have here.