We knew that today was going to be wet, wet with a chance of wet… turned out the forecast was nearly right, we actually had quite a few dry periods throughout the day.

After a failed attempt to do some food shopping (turns out the shops don’t open until 1pm in Northern Ireland on a Sunday) we stopped for an emergency coffee and headed back to HQ to plan what we should do for the day.  As luck would have it we spotted a sign advertising a kite festival at the Downhill Demesne and Hezlett House, it’s part of the National Trust which I joined just days before… OMG I must be getting old… I used OMG, I’m still cool, right?

Only a 15 minute walk away we headed up to the festival proudly showing off our shiny new National Trust cards and feeling rather smug about our latest purchase. Now having never been to a kite festival before I was unsure what to expect, I most definitely didn’t expect to see kites as big as your house, synchronised kite flying and £40 a seat helicopter rides…. HELICOPTER RIDES!! Yes I’m sure you’ve already spotted the youtube video below.. go on click away and watch our flight, it was fantastic and that’s one more thing ticked off my bucket list 🙂

Up bright and early today as we had lots to fit in, we were keen to see The Dark Hedges, Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge, Giant’s Causeway and Dunluce Castle, you’ll can see all except The Dark Hedges along the Causeway Coastal Route.

The Dark Hedges

Our first stop was The Dark Hedges – SPOILER ALERT – I’ve only seen the first season of Game of thrones… IKR!!  But after visiting The Dark Hedges I promise to binge watch the series once and for all.  This was a real visitor hot spot, it wasn’t long before coaches of people arrived so my recommendation is to get there early (before 9am) to make the most of the quiet time, it’s well worth it.  Also be sure to look around as there are actually some lovely fields surrounding this iconic road.

Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge

After spending around 45 minutes looking around and photographing this Dark Hedges we moved on to Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge, it was time to flash our brand new National Trust cards one again 😉

As expected it’s well all really well organised with one exception, the overflow car park area is mostly a single lane road and when we left (12noon) lots of people were arriving and we found it difficult to exit – ideally they should manage the traffic flow to make this easier and safer but it’s a minor issue in what was an incredible place to visit.

Once you make your purchase at the main entrance you’ll be given a time slot to cross the bridge, our own time was not that long after our purchase so by the time we made the short(ish) walk to bridge area we only had a short wait before being able to cross.
TIP: Be sure to enjoy the view on that walk, it really is beautiful!

Suspended almost 100 ft (30 m) above sea level the Rope Bridge leads you over to amazing 360 Degree views, totally makes the knee trembling walk over the bridge worth while, now heights are not my best friend but the staff are fantastic and on hand to help.

Giant’s Causeway

Now this is the part where I tell you about Giant’s causeway right… wrong!  Upon arriving (about 12:30pm) the carpark was full and you could clearly see a huge amount of visitors so we decided that maybe this would be better experienced early in the morning the next day so we headed on to our next stop.

Dunluce Castle

One of the things that captivated me most was the sense of scale within the ruins, also the wonderful views they would have experienced looking out from the very grand windows.  Walking over the bridge and into the ruins is quite spectacular and the views are simply beautiful.

Unfortunately (for us) this isn’t part of the National Trust but it’s reasonably priced at £5.00 for adults and £3 for children and it’s easily somewhere you could wonder around in for an hour or so.

Back to HQ

We decided to drive along the Causeway Coastal Route on the way back stopping a couple time to admire some lovely views.  when we arrived back we decided to wonder along the beach outside our accommodation, it was sunny and warm so why not.  One the way back I decided it would make perfect sense to create my second every hyper lapse, I must be mad!  In total it took over 1hr and 800 photos, came out pretty good though and I dedicated it to the RNLI 🙂

After missing out yesterday we were up nice and early, full from a big breakfast and on the road. From where we were staying it was only a 30 minute drive so we were confident of avoiding the huge crowds Giant’s Causeway attracts.

The Giant’s Causeway visitor centre is a beautiful buliding, fantastic piece of architecture and well laid out, you’ll find a big café and shop along with a HUGE screen showing an informative video about the history behind The Giant’s Causeway.  We couldn’t wait to get down the the main attraction so headed onwards with the intention to look at the visitor centre in more detail afterwards.

You can either walk down to the causeway columns or take one of the shuttle coaches, i’d strongly recommend walking, it’s not only beautiful, but it gives you time to take in the atmosphere, it’s quite magical and inspiring place. For some reason i was expecting it to be bigger, don’t get me wrong, it’s not tiny just not as large as I though it would be.

We spent around an hour wandering around the stones, taking photos and to people watching, it’s fascinating to see peoples reactions.  The formation of the stones are truely unique and while the majority of them appear to be slightly convexed, every so often you come across a few that are concaved and water settles like a miniature pool, it makes for some interesting photo opportunities this place, truly special.

While the Causeway columns are the main event it has to be said that it’s surrounded by some stunning views with incredible cliff faces.  After about an hour photographing we wandered off towards the cliff trail, it’s a really good walk but definitely not for those who have a fear of heights… don’t get me wrong it’s very safe but it is quite high.

Our last full day has arrived and it’s one we’ve been looking forward to, not because it’s our last, because it was time to hit the road and travel the 100k (102 miles) Inishowen Peninsula in our trusty Nisan Micra 😉

The i100 presents you with beautiful coastaline, sweeping roads, amazing views and a few little surprises along the way.  To get to Ireland from our base in Castlerock required a ferry crossing from Magilligan Point, the drive here already amazed us with some beautiful landscape views, it reminded me a little of Iceland.

One thing is guaranteed on this trip, you’ll see some beautiful spots and plenty of them, I’ve picked out just a few of mine here starting with Shrove Beach & Lighthouse, it was the first point we came across when taking the south route from the ferry.  It’s a lovely beach, quiet when we arrived with plenty of parking. To the right you’ll see the lighthouse and to the left some interesting rocks to climb across and explore.. a great start.

Next we moved on to Magilligan Point View, put simply it’s a view point that has an incredible view over across the landscape out to sea, definitely worth stopping at and grabbing your camera for a spectacular panoramic.

Moving on we went slightly off the beaten track to stop by Tremone Bay, a location the helicopter pilot mentioned during our flight at the kite festival on day 2 of our trip. Time to get the drone out for a short flight, there was absolutely no-one there, super quiet and very pretty.

Next stop a little place made famous by a small movie called Star Wars “The Last Jedi”, you can see why – it has really interesting landscapes, you could see for miles.  You’ll also see some interesting buildings in the surrounding area, I found a nice run down cottage when leaving, couldn’t resist stopping by the roadside to take a couple photos, it  looking very sorry for itself.

Another unexpected stop next, we spotted a sign for Glenevin Waterfall, curiosity got the better of us so off we went for a 1k walk from the carpark to the waterfall on a windy path that follows a stream.  It’s not the biggest waterfall i’ve seen, bit unfair as we have been to Iceland but it was still a nice little stop.

During the drive we came across some incredible windy roads that were almost like rollercoaster rides, they were fantastic and some seemed to climp forever, our poor little hire car didn’t enjoy some of them very much.  It was shortly after a break on the R242 next to a huge lake we started to go a little off course, in fact we ended up about 1 hour away from the ferry in completely the wrong direction… oops.. so we decided that we’d drive to Londondary and back to HQ by road, it all adds to the adventure right 🙂

A sad day, time to leave to return to England, we have had a fantastic time in Northern Ireland and Ireland, can’t wait to return for another adventure as soon as possible.

Thanks for reading, hope you found some of this post helpful when it comes to your Ireland adventure.