The Causeway Ramblers

We just had THE Best day in Northern Ireland! We bought rambler passes on the local bus that goes between Portrush and Ballycastle. It's a full day pass for £8 each so we could get on and off as often as we wanted. We boarded the bus at 10am in Portrush, our first stop only 10 min. along the road. It's a coastal road right along the top of the cliff and barely wide enough for a small car to pass in the opposite direction of the bus. It's incredibly beautiful. I asked the bus driver if he really got to drive this road every day and he grinned from ear to ear and gave me a thumbs up!

First stop Dunluce Castle: built in the 1500s by warring clan chiefs from Scotland: it's now run by the Department for Communities, Historic Environment Division and is an active archeological dig site as they recover the village of Dunluce that was just outside the castle. It's quite fascinating to see such a large ruin with diagrams and recreation pictures so you can see what was where hundreds of years ago.

Portrush can be seen behind in the distance on far cliff.

Second stop The Giant's Causeway: N. Ireland's first Unesco World Heritage site and one of its main tourist attractions with a big fancy tourist centre that we chose not to visit because of the cost. It's free to walk down to the site if you came by bus and are not parking a car. They make it easy for those who can't walk far by providing shuttle buses. But you get a much better view of the area if you walk the kilometer down.

We had lunch of tomato and basil soup with scones in this very cute old school house now a pub/restaurant called The Nook.

Third stop Carrick-a-Rede: which means 'rock in the road' from Scottish Gaelic. It has been a rope bridge for over 350 years used by fishermen to access and catch migrating salmon on a little island. It's now run by the National Trust. I had heard about it quite awhile ago so it was a on my to-do list. I had to do a bit of talking to get Wendy to come but she ended up thinking it was great fun too.

There were lots of rocks and slippery spots once over on the island so you need to be careful and watch your feet placement. Loved it! 

Our selfie on the island after which we walked back to the road to catch the bus. It was getting pretty cool and windy by then. Caught last bus of the day at 4:45, into Ballycastle, the end of the line, and then came back all the way to Portrush with that bus, about an hour. It was a great day, only stop we didn't make was Bushmills distillery. Huge crowds there and we didn't really care one way or the other. 

We were so lucky with the weather all day today - made for a great day out!!