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Home > Travels > Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland
MY TRIP TO IRELAND, NORTHERN IRELAND AND SCOTLAND
 Day 6: Coast! Coast! Coast!
 On Day 6, we travelled the coastline. It was all about cliffs, coasts and locations along them. The Atlantic Ocean seldom left our left flank as we progressed.
Our first destination was Magheracross (or Plain of the Cross), a stretch of coastline that looks out on the busy seaway between Northern Ireland and Scotland.
In addition to massive cliffs and views of the ocean, Magheracross and the coastline further west includes sights such as Dunluce Castle and the Giants Causeway.
Dunluce Castle sits on a large basalt rock outcropping with a 20 foot chasm separating it from the mainland except for a single stone bridge. It is believed to have been orginally built in the 1500's by Richard de Burgh on the remains of a fort that dated back as far as the 1200's. In 1564, the castle was captured by Sorley Boy MacDonnell, much to the annoyance of the Queen Elizabeth of England. She ordered Sir John Perrott to take the castle back in 1584 and he did just that. However, unlnown to him, he actually appointed conferates of Sorley Boy McDonnell to guard the castle. As soon as Perrott left, McDonnell easily took the castle again. McDonnell eventually swore allegiance to the Queen, though.
In 1588, the Spanish treasure ship Girona wrecked just down the coast on the shore of Giants Causeway, breaking up and killing all hands. McDonnell recovered the treasure and used it to add on and modernize the castle. Later, he moved to Dunaneenie and the castle was taken over by his son, Randal McDonnell.
Unfortunately, the restoration money went to the wrong part of the castle. In 1639, during a huge storm, the kitchen section of the castle fell into the sea, along with the cooks. A rebellion in 1641 decimated the surrounding village, though the castle still stood.
After the Battle of Boyne in 1690, Randal McDonnell was imprisoned and the castle was abandoned in favor of the nearby Ballymagarry House. That structure burnt down in 1745 and was rebuilt as Glenarm Castle.
Dunluce castle wasn't open at the time of the morning we arrived, but we were able to walk around the outside grounds, anyway. Here's a bit of what we saw:
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| Following our visit to the castle, we headed down the road to Giants Causeway. While the cliffs and shoreline there is impressive, the main feature is the rocks.
The area that composes Giants Causeway was subject to serious volcanic activity millions of years ago. Molten rock squeezed up through fissures in the chalk upper bed and formed three areas of a lava plateau: lower, middle and upper basalts.
The middle basalts are where something really intersting happened. The rapid cooling of the lava caused it to contract, while uneven temperatures formed the geometric columns visible in the area. Most of the columns are hexagonal, though a few have as many as eight sides.
Of course, the truth of how the causeway formed isn't nearly as entertaining as the the legond:
In Ireland, there lived a gentle giant named Finn McCool. We was a small giant, being only 52 feet, 6 inches. Across the sea in Scotland lived another giant named Benandonner.
The two giants demanded of each other a trial of strength. Finn, being a nice guy, decided to build a rock causeway between the two countries in order to make the contest possible.
Unfortunately, after putting in all that work, Finn fell asleep. The next morning, Finn's giantess wife, Oonagh, woke to the sound of the rumbling footsteps of Benandonner coming across the causeway.
She realized the smaller Finn would be no match for the larger giant. Thinking quickly, she dressed the sleeping Finn in a nightgown and bonnet.
Benandonner arrived and demanded to know where Finn was, but Oonagh hushed him, warning him not to wake her "baby". The rival giant looked Finn over and panicked. If their child was that big, how big was Finn? He quickly retreated back to Scotland, destroying most of the causeway in the process and leaving only the portion on the Irish shore.
Here are some photos of the area:
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 While I may be stating the obvious, I should point out there are a lot of castles in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland. That's actually probably an understatement. They range anywhere from fully restored attractions to ruins that barely qualify as structures anymore.
As we traveled, we took a moment along the way to take a look at Dunseverick Castle. This would be one of the castles that falls in the category of ruins. This castle was captured and destroyed by Vikings and only the single tower remains.
 Our next stop was to visit the rope bridge at Carrick-a-Rede. This rope bridge has a long history.
For over 350 years, fishermen have strung a rope bridge between the main land and Carrick Islnad at the beginning of each fishing season. The area around the island was a large source of salmon.
The original bridge only had a single hand rail and the wood slats were much larger. The National Trust took over operation of the bridge and rebuilt it with a double handrail and a safer deck. While it is still used on a seasonal basis for fisherman, it is primarily a tourist attraction now.
Below are some pictures of the area:
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 After our visit to Carrick-a-Rede, we traveled to Moyle to get some lunch on our way to Belfast. This would be our last day of touring Northern Ireland as we would be heading to Scotland the following day.
In Belfast, we stayed at the only hotel of the trip. We checked in and sought out dinner. Unfortunately, any place that served food had already closed for the night and we ended up eating in the hotel restaurant.
The room I stayed in had a window that overlooked the skylight window of the dining room. Because of that, light came through the gaps in the curtains. While the room was dark, a couple of times I woke up thinking we had overslept and it was already daylight when I saw the light behind the curtains. Since were scheduled to get up a bit before dawn, it would have been a bad thing if the sun was up.
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