Travel to Ireland

Day 3 Causeway Coastal Route (181 Km.)

(in 80 Km.) Dark Hedges: The Dark Hedges is an avenue of beech trees along Bregagh Road between Armoy and Stranocum that form an atmospheric tunnel that has been used as a location in Game of Thrones TV serie. In about 1775 James Stuart built a new house. Over 150 beech trees were planted along the entrance road to the estate. A tree preservation order was placed on the trees in 2004, to enable preservation and maintenance, and in 2009 the Dark Hedges Preservation Trust was set up. Of the 150 trees originally planted by the Stuart family, about 90 remained by 2016.

(in 16 Km.) Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge: Our next visit was intended to be the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge, but when we arrived at the entrance they told us that due to the amount of people we had to wait for about 3 hours, so we were content to see it from a viewpoint before get to the parking lot. Carrick-a-rede rope bridge is a bridge of 20 meters in length located at a height of 25 meters above sea level and linking a small island of volcanic origin, where there is a salmon fishery, with the coast.

(in 2 Km.) Ballintoy: We deviated a few hundred meters to visit the Ballintoy harbour, used for the fictional city of Lordsport on Pyke Island, in the second season of Game of Thrones. We found a plaque that allows us to compare a scene of the serie with the real scenario. It is a charming port from which we get beautiful views of the coast. Once the visit is done, we undo the way to return to the road that will take us to the most interesting visit of the day.

(in 12 Km.) Giant's Causeway: Surely the Giant's Causeway is the most tourist attraction in Northern Ireland. Declared as UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986, it is an area that contains more than 40,000 basalt columns from the relatively rapid cooling of lava in a crater or volcanic caldera, which occurred about 60 million years ago. After parking in the huge car park, and bypassing the visitor center, we begin to visit this natural attraction. There is a paid bus (ideal for rainy days) that takes you from the visitor center to the basaltic columns.

As we have a sunny day, we decided to walk. There are two paths that lead to the columns. One of them is flat (where the bus goes by), while the other goes over a cliff. Following the advice of other travelers, we decided to start with the one on the cliff, since first you have to make the climb, but later it goes down. The beauty of this road is that it offers you a fantastic aerial views of the giants' causeway and the surrounding coast. Once we reached the Shepherd’s Steps, we went down its 162 steps (if we had made the route in the opposite direction, it would be necessary to climb them).

When we reach the base of the stairs we turn to the right to see some columns that look like an organ (The organ). From this point we return until we reach The Grand Causeway, although before we get there we take pictures of the stone called "giant's boot". It is spectacular to walk over the thousands basaltic columns, pentagonal, hexagonal shapes, etc. Also, being located by the sea, the contrast of colors is fascinating. Despite the multitude of people who walk through this place the visit is impressive.

To return to the visitor center we do it through the lower road, through which the bus passes, which offers us views of the bays of Port Ganny and Portnaboe.

(in 5 Km.) Bushmills: The village of Bushmills is well known for its Old distillery. The company that originally built the distillery was formed in 1784, although the date 1608 is printed on the label of the brand – referring to an earlier date when a royal licence was granted to a local landowner to distil whiskey in the area. It means that is the oldest distillery with license in Ireland. Some Bushmills offerings have performed well at international Spirit ratings competitions. In particular, its Black Bush Finest Blended Whiskey received double gold medals at the 2007 and 2010 San Francisco World Spirits Competitions.

(in 4 Km.) Dunluce castle: Is a now-ruined medieval castle, the seat of Clan McDonnell. It is located on the edge of a basalt outcropping, and is accessible via a bridge connecting it to the mainland. The castle is surrounded by extremely steep drops on either side, which may have been an important factor to the early Christians and Vikings who were drawn to this place where an early Irish fort once stood. The castle is the film location of the Game of Thrones Seat of House Greyjoy, the great castle of Pyke.

(in 62 Km.) Londonderry: We spend the night in this city, which we will visit the next morning.