Northern Ireland in 2 days
I wanted to go to Northern Ireland since I first heard of the magnificent Giant’s Causeway. Since it was a short drive from Dublin, we decided to rent a car and do a trip there. Because we never get the car, we decided not to go to Belfast, which we could easily go by train.
Day 1
We left Dublin early morning and headed to Northern Ireland. There is no border from one country to the next, which makes the transition from Km/h to Miles/h quite confusing for us.
We headed directly to Castle Rock and CastleRock Beach.
The scenery through Northern Ireland until then was lovely, and we enjoyed all the tiny towns with the UK flag 🇬🇧 flying around everywhere. The beach is quite nice and the weather was great. However, Castle Rock was close for a wedding, so we couldn’t visit the building.
We spent just a few minutes in the beach and headed to the Dunluce Castle. At this point, the day was absolutely gorgeous and the ruins of that castle on the top of the cliffs became even more beautiful.
We spent quite some time there and took lots of photos. We even saw a bride and groom taking pictures.
Finally we headed to the Giant’s Causeway, which was the main destination for this trip. I can’t stress enough how beautiful and magical this place is. The geological features feels human-made and the sea water was crystal clear. We spent the rest at the afternoon just walking around and enjoying the view.
We decided to go directly to Ballycastle, where we had a reservation on a lovely B&B called Corratavey Guest Accomodation. The B&B was super clean, the staff was super nice and we enjoyed a lovely breakfast on the next day.
Once we made our check in, we walked until the beach and enjoyed the view from there. We were able to go to the Anzac Bistro for dinner, even thought we didn’t have a reservation. Perfect ending for this day!
Day 2
We bought tickets online for the first slot for the Carrick-a-Rede Bridge. This meant that our ticket was for a 9h30 slot so we had to wake up quite early between breakfast and getting there. This was the best decision we made! The walk to the bridge was lovely and there was almost no one when we got there, so we were able to enjoy the scenery without a crowd around. Although this was not the main thing I wanted to see, it was by far one of my favorite places ever. The sun was shining, cliffs as far as the eye can see and many MANY birds.
There are a couple of warnings regarding this trip. First, it is a very small bridge, and the handrail was below my waist. Because the bridge was made out of rope, the wind and your steps can easily swing it. It didn’t feel super safe going without my both hands on the handrail. I won’t recommend for people who are afraid of heights. Additionally, once you cross it, there is very few areas with safeguards from the cliffs, so you should be careful while walking around!
After the bridge we decided to go to the Ballintoy Harbour, which was one of the places where the Game of Thrones was filmed. To be more precise, it was the harbour where Theon Greyjoy arrived in the Iron Islands.
Finally we went to the Dark Hedges, an area of some wonderful trees. Also a set for the Game of Thrones footage, it is a breathtaking experience of those spooky trees.
After this we were quite tired and decided to head back to Dublin, where we arrived by end of the day. And that’s all from our lovely trip to Northern Ireland!
❤ Cheers! Letícia