Seeing the sights in Northern Ireland!

A group of five friends, all residing and working in Dublin, decided on a weekend getaway to see and explore what Northern Ireland had to offer (and were joking about travelling abroad).  We rented a car together, a light blue Fiat Marea which didn’t even have a CD player for us to listen to music. 

But, complaining aside, the car served its purpose as we all fit inside it with all our luggage. The initial drive was a bit interesting as I had previously driven on the left side of the road, however that was with a “normal” European car, sitting on the left side of the car. Now, all of a sudden, I found myself sitting on the right side and had to get used to stick-shift with my left hand. It was a bit tricky initially, but I got used to it pretty soon.

We all left directly after work on a Friday afternoon where we travelled to the airport area to collect the rental, slightly more expensive than in the city but at least we didn’t have to deal with the inner city traffic at that time of the day, and were soon on the road towards Northern Ireland.

We soon drove through Belfast and continued onwards to Ballycastle, a small village at the very north of the island. Once there, we settled into our B&B before heading out to explore the town for some refreshments. Once there, we were surprised by how empty the village was, we saw deserted streets and empty pubs and figured that it must be because it was the weekend after St. Patrick’s Day and most people may still be recovering from that day. We ended up just finding a pub for a decent meal and a few pints before calling it a night!

The following day we travelled along the stunning Causeway coast, stopping along the way to experience the sights. First on the list was the “Carrick-a-Rede Rope bridge”, a rope bridge that links the mainland to the tiny island of Carrickarede. Whilst initially unremarkable, once you reach the bridge and can see the small rocks below, it becomes slightly more daunting, add fierce winds like we encountered and it becomes quite terrifying. We were initially all going to cross it, but in the end, the girls didn’t want to and it was just us three guys that decided to attempt the cross. 

The first few steps were easy but as soon as you walk about half-ways and the wind hits and grabs you and you feel as if you’re walking sideways, you all of a sudden start taking this seriously and you grab onto that bridge as if your life is depending on it. Well, we made it across and the matter was clearly over, but then you have to make your way back across the bridge, at which point the wind had picked up even more and I was actually a bit nervous about one of us who initially stated that he refused to cross again. This had happened before and you’re then forced to wait for a boat to arrive and collect you which can take hours. Luckily, he forced himself and soon after, we were once again back on the main land.  

Just as we had made it across, we encountered one of the local guides walking towards us. As we stood there we observed as he closed the area, saying the winds were too strong and it was too dangerous to keep it open. Had we arrived 20 minutes later we would have missed the experience.

After that rush, our trip continued with a visit to the Giant’s Causeway, one of the more famous landmarks in Ireland. It’s a unique rock formation of stepping stones that lead down to the ocean and it appeared that most of the stones were hexagonal in shape. Just as we arrived, we still had some sun shine however between us walking from the parking lot to the causeway, the weather changed completely and as we arrived, the wind caught up with us bringing rain along as well causing a rather damp experience for all of us. 

After grabbing a local bus back to the visitor centre, we had a a quick change of clothes and continued on our tour towards Bushmills Whiskey distillery. Here we took part in the normal tour which showcased a movie where they explain the process and why their whiskey is the best (of course) before you’ve given a tour of the area and finishing with a sample of their product at the end where we managed to talk the girls into doing the sample tastings. 

Personally, I really enjoyed the experience at Bushmills. At the time of writing, I’ve been to three whiskey distilleries here in Ireland, Jameson in Dublin, Bushmills and Middleton in Cork, and I liked Bushmills the best. It’s a tour in a real distillery and not one that was used hundred years ago.

That night we reached Derry (or Londonderry as they call it here in Northern Ireland). Here we found a B&B that has been the best one I’ve been to on my travels, the “Arkle House”. The rooms were really big, price was decent, the breakfast was great and the host was very friendly.

Derry by night didn’t have that much to offer to us so we enjoyed some fast food, a few pints at the pub and then retired to the B&B. The following morning saw us explore Derry’s historic city walls and murals offering a glimpse into its past. And whilst not quite as impressive as the Belfast murals, these were more terrifying.

After Derry we didn’t have any set plans so we drove back towards Belfast and on towards Bangor before continuing to Newcastle. We didn’t really have a goal set for this day, so it was just spontaneous stops with scenic views on our way back to Dublin.

We had lots of fun on this trip, even though the weather was not really on our side, but then again it’s still winter in Ireland, what else were we expecting . We enjoyed lots during this trip, in particular the Carrick-a-Rede Rope bridge which was a exhilarating experience and also the Bushmills distillery. We could have planned the final day a bit better but, as it got a bit confusing with different people wanting to see different things, however we felt we shared a good trip among good friends and are already thinking of doing another trip together.