A jaunty wander from Belfast to the Giant's Causeway

A little bit of background

This post documents our Northern Ireland wanderings as part of a two-week 25th wedding anniversary trip to London and to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in April 2018. If you'd like to start at the beginning of our journey, read my post on our London wanderings here. (With me on this trip was my husband, W, and our 17-year-old daughter, E.)

We flew into Dublin with Ryanair from Stansted Airport, relatively free of drama. I remember a long wait to board the plane which must have made us late arriving in Dublin, but that's a pretty mild interruption, especially for the notorious Ryanair! We picked up a hire car at the airport and headed straight for Belfast. On a side note, the hire car assistant seemed a little perturbed that we were going to Northern Ireland. Hmmm.

Check out my reflections on our Northern Ireland experience and what it meant to me at the end of this post.

Day 1: Belfast

As mentioned in my London post, the weather was pretty rubbish even though it was Easter and supposedly in the middle of spring. It was even colder in Belfast than London! Not only was it cold, it was also showery and bleak.

We only had three nights and two full days in Belfast so there wasn't a lot of time to explore the city. On our first full day it was wet but we had intended to go to the Titanic museum anyway. The museum sits at the location where the Titanic was built and was opened in 2012.

At the time of writing this post in 2024, a general self-guided entry ticket was £25. It's absolutely worth every penny, I think! The museum is one of the best I have ever been to when it comes to a 'narrative' style of museum that documents an experience of something historic and momentous. The museum includes a bunch of interactive exhibits and artefacts including the actual slipway from which the Titanic was launched. The museum is well laid out and has that storytelling feel to it that I love. The shape of the museum, as seen in the middle shot above, represents the shape of ships' prows. The exterior is clad in 3000 silver aluminium shards and the building stands at the same height as the Titanic's hull (38 metres).

The weather hadn't improved after our museum visit and unfortunately, it made it hard for us to see the city. We drove off in search of the street art in Falls Road. Here are some examples. I remember that we made a mad dash in the rain to a café near the graffiti and had a nice warm lunch. The person who served us seemed tentative at first, but was much friendlier when she realised we were Australian.

We had a bit of a drive around the city but again, it was wet for most of the day. We ended up going to an indoor entertainment centre to the movies in the afternoon. (We saw A quiet place.) We assume that such centres would be used A LOT in Belfast due to the weather.

The bottom righthand shot above shows our hire car parked in front of the apartment we rented through Airbnb. It was a lovely modern apartment and the owner super friendly and helpful. We were walking distance from a Lidl and even braved the weather to walk there to buy dinner and breakfast supplies.

Day 2: Our jaunt to the Giant's Causeway

Our second full day in Northern Ireland much better weather-wise. It was bloody freezing, but at least it was fine. We set out early for our jaunt up to the Giant's Causeway. We ended up having the most incredible day out exploring stunning Northern Ireland landscapes. I wish now we'd had two days to see everything.

Our first stop was at Carrickfergus on the outskirts of Belfast in County Antrim. The town sits on the north shore of Belfast Lough and is one of the oldest towns in the whole of Ireland. Just look at the stunning harbour!

The main feature of Carrickfergus is the 12th century castle, built under the direction of Anglo-Norman knight, John de Courcy, as the original capital of the Earldom of Ulster. Upon the earldom's collapse, the castle remained the only English outpost in Ulster for four centuries.

We had a poke around the exterior of the castle as we were too early for it to be open. I didn't mind; I mean, it was enough to be standing on the site of a castle built in 1177! The castle remains one of the best preserved medieval castle in Northern Ireland. It is stunning to look at, jutting out the at the point and surrounded by water. Being there so early meant we had a gorgeous perspective, with the sun where it was at that part of the day.

The Gobbins was next on our itinerary although we only drove past the area. It's so pretty, though! The Gobbins itself is a cliff path that runs across bridges, past caves and through tunnels. You can only experience it on a guided tour these days and even then I believe the path closes sometimes due to weather and storm damage.

We stopped to stretch our legs a little further along the Antrim Coast. You can see how cold we were but the day was brilliantly sunny and the sky a deep blue. Northern Ireland, you sure are pretty 💞.

Actually, the Antrim Coast and Glens was designated as An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1988. This area extends to include Rathlin Island, the glens, and the coastal area between Larne and Ballycastle. I think it pretty much covers the main chunk of eastern Northern Ireland from Belfast to top of the country. There are lots of geologically significant bits, including 300 million year old schist rocks and rare plant habitats.

We stopped for a hot chocolate at Glenarm Castle along the Antrim Coast. The tearooms at the castle are adorable and our hot drink was very much welcomed. Unfortunately the castle wasn't open at the time of our visit but we did have the chance to wander around the walled garden.

We headed inland next, to Slemish. I've called it a mountain in the below collage but it's more accurately a hill. and the remains of the plug of an extinct volcano. How cool is that? The plug is made of magnesium rock formed millions of years ago during the Palaeogene period. Legend has it that St Patrick worked as a shepherd on the mountain and it's the place where he found religion.

The next stop on our journey to the Giant's Causeway was Glenariff Forest Park in the Glens of Antrim, all still part of the Antrim Area of Outstanding Beauty. Here are some shots of the stunning glens. There are actually nine glens (valleys) that radiate from the Antrim Plateau to the coast.

We stopped at the park, some 1185 hectares in the Glenariff glen. We made the almost 5km journey along the Waterfall Walkway, originally opened up around 80 years ago. There are three waterfalls and forest trails along the walkway that are easy enough to traverse, included boardwalks that sit adjacent to the river. So pretty!

We ended up at the park café for lunch, keen for a hearty meal after all the walking. I remember that the meal was indeed hearty but that we waited ages for it. We'd had a lovely walk through the park, but it did take a big chunk out of our day. Again, I wish we'd had more time in the glens.

After lunch we headed back towards the coast, stopping at Torr Head. This rugged part of the coastline is notable for sitting on one side of the narrowest part of the Straits of Moyle between Northern Ireland and Scotland (Mull of Kintyre). The width is just 19 km.

That's Scotland in the bottom righthand photo!

Needless to say, it was EXTREMELY cold and windy at the Head. I have a video of us battling the elements as we climbed up and stood on the platform. It was wicked up there but the views were fab.

Our penultimate stop was at Bonamargy Friary. The friary dates back to 1485 and was established by a Franciscan order. There are only bits of left, but these bits include traces of an altar. So cool to be poking around something so old!

It was getting late in the day by now and we still had the causeway to explore. We couldn't miss out on seeing the Dark Hedges, the famous avenue of beech trees planted in the 18th century (and of made even more famous by The games of thrones). In the end, it was probably a good time to be there as there weren't too many people. We tried to take a least one photo sans people!

Here are some shots of the beautiful countryside between the friary and the causeway. We really wanted to do the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge which is quite near the causeway. Unfortunately, we left it too late and last tickets had been sold by the time we got there. We should have booked!

Our time spent at the Giant's Causeway made up for that disappointment, though. We were there at dusk and the experience was just magical. I'm not quite sure what happened as we didn't end up paying to get in, but I think that's because we didn't have access to the visitor's centre as it had closed by the time we arrived. We parked (for free, somehow) and walked down to the site.

If you're wondering about the connection between the causeway and a giant, here it is: Legend has it that the columns on the site are the remains of a causeway built by a giant. The Irish giant - Finn MacCool - is said to have been challenged to fight with a Scottish giant and he built the causeway across the North Channel so the duel could take place. There you go!

OK, so here are the facts: The Giant's Causeway covers an area of around 40 000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of a volcanic fissure eruption millions of years ago. The site was given UNESCO World Heritage Site listing in 1986 and it has been popularly named the fourth-greatest natural wonder in the UK. The tops of the columns across the causeway form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear into the sea. Most are hexagonal in shape. The tallest reaches 12 metres and the cliffs of solidified lava are 28 metres thick in some places.

The best part of our visit was the dusk view. Just look at these beautiful shots! We were so lucky to have made it as we only got into the site at the last minute. That said, seeing the place at dusk was a magical experience.

We had plenty of time to wander around the Causeway, but it had been a huge day. If I have the chance to go back again, I'd do our itinerary over a couple of days. It's actually only 100km from Belfast to the Causeway if you take a direct route, but there's a lot to see and do in the Glens of Antrim. Our wanderings only covered some of the things, and I was pretty disappointed that we missed out on the rope bridge.

A lot to do in one day: I'd recommend spreading it out over at least two days.

It was dark by the time we left, taking the inland road back to Belfast so we could get back to our flat for a late light meal for dinner. That was it for us in Northern Ireland as the next day we headed south into The Republic of Ireland for the rest of our trip. You can read about our adventures in The Other Ireland here.

Our Northern Ireland experience

We loved our time in Northern Ireland. It can be tough to experience the country because of the weather, but it is stunning on a sunny day yet pretty awful when it's not. We really only scratched the surface. Having a car is a good idea as it's so much easier to explore the countryside.

I realise I only have two and a bit days in Northern Ireland to base my reflections on, but even our brief time there allowed us to feel the connection between the country and Australia. I would like to return one day to explore more of this beautiful country and spend more time gaining a deeper appreciation for Belfast.