COUNTY ANTRIM - The Giants Causeway

The Giant’s Causeway is a remarkable geological location that is steeped in mythology and legends. Located on County Antrim’s coast in Northern Ireland, the iconic hexagonal basalt columns that stretch out into the ocean were believed to have been created by the Irish giant Finn MacCool to face his Scottish rival, the giant Benandonner. In a more geological sense, the basalt columns were created by ancient lava flows. Similar basalt columns can be found across the ocean on the coast of Scotland.

While the coastline and pathways down to the causeway are free and accessible to everyone, we opted to pay to use the visitor centre. It is admittedly a little on the expensive side, but this guarantees a parking spot in the dedicated carpark, access to the very informative displays in visitor centre and use of the audio guides, which the girls really loved! They received the kids version which had lots of stories and facts from the legend of the giants.

We walked down the blue track from the visitor centre, which takes the lower path along the shoreline. We fully intended to take the red path on the way back that requires you to climb up the hillside and follow the path at the top of the cliffs, but we spent so much time at the causeway, we decided to return back up the quicker blue track.

There is a shuttle bus that ferries people along the road of the blue path, it’s 1 pound per person and is ideal for anyone with mobility issues but we found the walk to be really easy and enjoyable for the kids.

Even though I’ve known about the Giant’s Causeway since I was a kid, I kept my expectations low, fearing it would be over hyped. But I was very wrong. It was very busy with other tourists, but it really is a magical location. It’s amazing to be able to walk across all the basalt columns and enjoy the coastline stretching out on either side. It’s so much fun to simply explore the location and take in the scenery. There were many other points of interest that we didn’t make it too, including the Giants Boots and Organ Pipe, you could really spend all day exploring the area if you are willing to do a lot of walking. We visited in the afternoon, after stopping at the Dark Hedges and Dunluce Castle, and spent about 2.5 hours there, in hindsight we should have allocated a lot more time.

COUNTY ANTRIM - Dark Hedges and Dunluce Castle

From our accommodation in County Donegal, we ventured across into Northern Ireland to see some of the iconic sites: Dark Hedges, Dunluce Castle and The Giant’s Causeway. Technically Northern Ireland is apart of the United Kingdom, but we were able to easily cross the border in our car.

Our first stop was the Dark Hedges, an atmospheric tree lined road that has been made extra famous when it was featured in Game of Thrones, although it was already one of the most photographed locations in Northern Ireland. It also has a spooky ghost story about the Grey Lady who haunted the beech tree lined road.

My photos honestly don’t do it justice. It would look phenomenal at sunrise or sunset with a zoom lens and fancy camera. I’ve just been using my iphone on this trip, and it’s been extremely convenient but this location (and many others) have made me pine for my old Canon 5Dmk3 and lens.

We parked in the nearby carpark of the Hedges Hotel (parking was approx 5 euro from memory) and this location will forever more be remembered as where Hallie and Rooney both slipped over in the mud, only seconds after Braino told them not to run on the muddy grassy. It was honestly like a scene from Funniest Home Videos, I could barely contain my laugher while Braino came close to loosing his cool. Thankfully we had the suitcases in the car, as we had checked out that morning, so we were able to change the girls into clean clothes. Crisis averted.

After the Dark Hedges, we travelled on to Dunluce Castle, a magnificent ruin from the 16th and 17th centuries. It was inhabited by both the feuding McQuillan and MacDonnell clans and dramatically sits in a rocky headland overlooking the ocean. This is probably my favourite castle ruin that we’ve visits in Ireland, the location is just spectacular! It was also used as a location in Game of Thrones, although with a lot more CGI.