Giant's Causeway

This week I have been to Belfast in Northern Ireland for a few days. The main reason for going was to visit  the Giant's Causeway, 60 miles away on the coast. I  decided I didn't want to hire a car so I found a tour that gave you the option of visiting Bushmills Distillery or walking five miles along the coastal path to the Causeway. As a non whiskey drinker it was a no brainer choice for me.





We were dropped at the coastal path here where you can see the remains of Dunluce Castle. This 14th century castle was featured in the Game of Thrones. There were 11 of us altogether and we were led by a National Trust ranger.

We were fortunate with the weather and the scenery was stunning.

In the distance we could see Scotland which is just 12 miles away.

This part of the country was formed by volcanic activity more than 50 million years ago.

The slow cooling of the lava created 40,000 basalt columns.

There are other places in the world where this has occurred but this coast is the most accessible.

It was made a heritage site in 1986

You can see people walking along the top of these cliffs which gives you an idea of the height.

I have never seen a unicycle on a coastal path before.

Our first sight of the Giant's Causeway below.

We walked down the Shepherd's Steps to the beach below and followed the path around this wall of basalt columns.

Once on the causeway I was able to have a close up view of the hexagonal shapes.

There were a lot of people clambering over the stones which selfishly I wanted to view with no-one else there.

The sight of these columns has inspired legends of giants striding over to Scotland.

This visitor attraction was formed 50-60 million years ago and has helped scientists understand a little more about the earth's development.

We met up with the rest of the coach party and continued the tour on to the Carrick -a-Rede rope bridge.

A rope bridge was constructed by salmon fisherman 350 years ago from the mainland to the tiny island of Carrick-a-Rede. The fishermen erected the bridge so they could check on their salmon nets. The fishery was important as it employed over 100 men in its heyday.

This is a view of the island of Carrick-a-Rede but you can't see the bridge.

The driver took the coastal route back to Belfast  and we just made one more stop at Carnlough  harbour.