Mount Stewart House and Legananny dolmen

 We drove down the west side of Strangford Louch to Mount Stewart House. It's a lovely house with several different themed gardens, some of which have very exotic statues. 

Legananny dolmen 

This dolmen has been standing in a farmer's field for 4,500 years! It's 10 feet long and 7 feet high.

As you can see from the photos, the tip of the top slab is balanced on the stone below it. How did they do that 4,500 years ago? It would be so awesome to have something that ancient right in our own backyard. 

Carrickfergus Castle

We had a good time here. There is a large area of the castle that is intact and it was fun to see the rooms set up for feasts etc. It was also a sunny day but still windy. We had just entered the castle complex when we saw a worker open a door to a below-ground room. My husband jokingly asked if that was the dungeon. The man said no, it's just storage much as it would have been in the old times. He let my husband go down inside and look around. This is the man I wrote about earlier that told us a story about Dunluce Castle. 

We continued on and looked at all the canons they have there, some with the year of manufacture still engraved in the barrels. Carrickfergus was besieged but the Scots, English, Irish and French but is still one of the best-preserved medieval structures in Northern Ireland. We spent at least a couple of hours here climbing up and down stairs and stone passages. Mike had lots of fun taking selfies with all the statues and sending them to the grandkids. I think this would be a great place to take kids. 

Belfast, Northern Ireland

 I have mixed feelings about writing of our experience in Belfast. I originally booked a walking tour that focused on the architecture and ALL the history of Belfast. I was actually trying to avoid any tour that focused on the unrest that happened there in the 1960's and continued for the next thirty years because I am of the age where I remember hearing about it on the news. All the violence and hatred... 

Unfortunately my tour guide had made a mistake and missed our booking but he set us up with a taxi tour later in the day free of charge. So we spent the morning at the Titanic Experience because it was brutally windy and raining outside. It was okay in my opinion but I'm not one of those people who are giant fans of the movie. The movie lovers all seem to think it's great. The first part focused on the construction of the ship. Then there were just a few exhibits about some of the people onboard etc. They had furniture and things from the sister ship the Olympic to look at. I will say that it was quite hot inside the building which diminished my enjoyment of the exhibits. Everyone was fanning themselves in an attempt to cool down. We left the museum and got some lunch nearby and then returned to the hotel to wait for our tour guide.

Our guide drove us past a couple of buildings and spoke a bit about the architecture but it wasn't long before he started sharing about this own childhood in Belfast which eventually led us to the peace gates - which are still promptly locked at 7pm each day. We walked the no-man's-land between the gates and later stopped at a memorial that has haunted me ever since. It was a memorial to several victims of the violence but I was particularly moved by two of them. Maybe it's because I have young grandchildren, but the stories of these two little boys left me in tears for quite a long time afterward and I even now have trouble talking about it without crying. I have tears running down my face even now as I'm typing. Why does violence have to touch our young people? Why can't innocent children be safe? I knew I would react that way which is why I tried to avoid the political past. I did tell the guide when we started out that I didn't want to focus on the "troubles" but I think it's such an interwoven part of their lives that it's just natural for them to speak of it. My husband is interested in world politics so it didn't effect him the way it effected me. 

Anyway, we finished our tour at City Hall where I was supposed to be able to appreciate the lovely architecture inside which would have been a welcome distraction. Most of the interior public rooms however were closed for an event so we left and walked back toward our hotel. We stopped to look at some of the "entries", narrow passages between buildings with pubs and business inside. We found a nice, cozy pub where we had dinner before returning to the hotel for the night. 

On the way to Belfast - The Gobbins Cliff Walk

 The Gobbins Cliff Walk was such a fun thing to do, even in the pouring rain. We got drenched but still had a good time. You have to go with a guide and a safety helmet because sometimes they have rockfalls. They had one the day before we arrived and so we couldn't go in the sea cave at the end of the walk because that was where the rockfall had occurred. The man who built the cliff walk actually used to throw parties in the cave during Victorian times. I couldn't imagine navigating that walk in a long dress and petticoats! 

You start the cliff walk with a short bus ride from the visitor center then a long steep walk downhill to the shore. The walk then continues along a narrow ledge cut into the side of the cliff (there is a railing) and you cross a couple of bridges. There are also some spots where you gave to go through openings in the rock, some were pretty low and even I had to hunch over. They warn you on their website that it's like climbing 50 flights of stairs and with the steep climb down and then back up again plus the ups and downs on the cliffside, I think that might be a modest estimate! Even so, we had a great time and I really recommend doing it. 

On the way to Belfast - Glenariff Forest Park and the Dark Hedges

We left the Causeway Coast area and started our drive to Belfast. We made a short stop at Glenarifff for a walk and some lunch. We had a more difficult walk planned for the afternoon so we just took it easy in the morning. There was hardly anyone around and we didn't see anyone else at all on the trail. 

Next stop was the "Dark Hedges" made famous as the King's Road on the TV series Game of Thrones. It's just a tree-lined road but I can see how it would definitely be scary/moody with the right conditions like fog or darkness.

Update: a severe winter storm knocked down several of the trees along the road so it doesn't look like this anymore.

Carrick-a rede bridge and the Giant's Causeway

 We had tickets to cross the Carrick-a-rede bridge and were looking forward to it. It used to be a skinny rope bridge between the coast and a big rock island but is now made of wood and metal. They limit the number of people on it as well as on the rock at the other side. Unfortunately for us, the wind was too high that morning and they had closed the bridge. We were very disappointed but glad they were being safety-conscious. We did walk down to the bridge and along the path for some photos. We actually could see Scotland across the sea as it was bright and sunny this day. The wind was pretty brutal though and it made sense that they didn't want people on the bridge. 

The Giant's Causeway is a long area of beach that is made up of basalt columns. The cool thing about basalt columns is that they are all hexagon shaped. The parking here and entrance fees were quite pricy, I think you can avoid them buy not entering the visitor center and walking all the way down the hill to the beach. We opted for the bus and the visitor center because it was a long walk to the beach and the steep downhill walk is hard on my knees. The visitor center had some lovely things for sale and I bought a beautiful sweater there. 

It was fairly crowded here as it was midday when we arrived and this is a popular stop for ALL the tours. We walked around on the beach and climbed on some stones but the stones were actually very slippery and you had to be careful not to slip on them.

Dunluce Castle

 There is a cool legend about this castle. One night there was a storm and the ground beneath the kitchen gave way, taking the kitchen and the servants with it. Local lore says only a young boy working in a corner survived. When we went to Carrickfergus later on the trip, a man working there asked if we had heard the story of a girl who had survived the collapse. He said he didn't even like talking about banshees,  but the legend is that a young girl working in the kitchen that night heard the cry of a banshee and ran from the castle before the kitchen collapsed. He explained that if you hear the cry of a banshee it means someone is going to die, but if you see a banshee it means you'll be the one to die. You've got to love what great storytellers these people are. 

Nice views of the coastline here too.