The Antrim Coast

Sunday 26th August

It was a day without rain and reasonably warm with sunny periods, so we set off for the beautiful Antrim coast. We started off at the little town of Carrickfergus, where my friend and her brother grew up. It is a picturesque little place, with a little harbour, now full of leisure boats, though it used to be full of fishing boats.

There is also a superb castle, in a reasonably good state of repair, which is well worth a visit

We didn't visit it this time, as Paul and I have been before, and we were all anxious to get on with our drive along the coast.

The coast really is beautiful, with spectacular views across dark cliffs or of bays of white sand and blue seas (the sea was a beautiful blue when the sun was out, a rather steely grey when it was hidden by clouds). All along the coast were pretty little villages with whitewashed cottages.

It is so beautiful, I wonder that it isn't better known. You would think that tourists would come flocking in droves. However, like many beautiful places we have visited, there aren't enough places where you can stop and take pictures.

We arrived at the Giant's Causeway in time for a late lunch, then Paul, my sister and I set off on the walk down to see the basalt columns, while our friends caught the little bus. We didn't wait for it, the queue was enormous with its being a Bank Holiday. It's a beautiful walk down, and, as it was a very nice day, there were hundreds of people.

You can see, on the left of the picture, the black burned rocks on the sea shore that further reveal the area's volcanic past. Further down the road, you arrive at the basalt columns.

I'm afraid this next picture is slightly out of focus, but I think it gives a better idea of the 40,000 columns that stretch away under the sea.

You can walk on quite a distance, there are lots more formations to look at. This a view you can see once you pass the main group of columns.

Further on still, there are other extensive rock formations, including one that looks very like a giant boot - which, given the number of people there, is quite hard to photograph without somebody sitting on it.

There are other rock formations too, but I won't post any more photographs as I'm not sure how this new software will deal with posting photos. We did go a bit further, but not too far, since it was getting late and we had a long climb back up the hill again to the car park, not to mention thinking of our exhausted hosts having to drive us all the way back again.