May 11 – Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, the Causeway Coastal Route and Glenarms Castle

It’s a welcome sunny day with almost no clouds although still rather cool.  Our first stop was just a few miles down the road, the Carrick-a-Rede Rope bridge.  The views along the trail to the bridge were pretty spectacular.  It helped that it was sunny.

The bridge was originally built by the salmon fishermen to allow them to cross to the island to check their salmon traps.  Now it is a major tourist attraction.  The bridge is 66 feet across...and is a vertigo inducing 98 feet above the rocks below.  Paul crossed the bridge.  Mary didn't.

There were a lot of seabirds in the area.

The next stop was Torr Head.  It is the location of a former Coast Guard station.  Both the barracks and the lookout point were in ruins. 

It was a pretty steep climb up to the lookout point but the views were great from there.

We spent much of the day driving the coastline and a couple of glens.

We stopped for lunch in Carnlough, little harbor town.  Pretty harbor.

Too bad we won’t be there May 25^th for the Pig Race.  Sounds like fun.

The main stop this afternoon was Glenarm Castle, the home  of the McDonnells.  They established their seat here after they abandoned Dun Luce Castle in the 1600's.

The grounds around the castle consisted mainly of simple fields of grass and a few wildflowers but there was a row of very old trees that had been trained/pruned to make a grand arch over one of the walkways.  Unfortunately the trees hadn't leafed out yet so it looked a bit stark. 

However, the adjacent walled garden was phenomenal.  It's Tulip Season at the Castle. Tulips in beds.

Tulips in barrels.  

Tulips in borders.

Frilly tulips

Pointy tulips

Flamboyant tulips

Simple tulips.

Tulips that look like peonies.

Tulips that look like lilies.

Tulips that look like parrots (well, someone seemed to think that these pink and green ones were sort of like parrots...according to the name they gave it).

Tulips that even look like tulips.  

Multi-colored tulips.

White tulips.

Black (almost) tulips.

And tulips in pretty much every color you can imagine.  Almost 15,000 tulips!!!

And Bluebells!!!  They had waves and waves of bluebells carpeting the grounds under massive shade trees.  

And there was statuary

and columns

and benches,

hedges 

and trees,

and beds bordered by small hedges,

and very long borders.   

After exhausting the gardens we headed out again with a stop in Carrickfergus the oldest town in County Antrim and one of the oldest ones in Ireland.  

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More photos of Glenarms Walled Garden

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We arrived in Belfast late afternoon and settled in.  For dinner we set out exploring a bit and found The Crown Bar, one of the oldest bars in Belfast.  The bar was packed.  Fortunately, the upstairs dining room wasn't quite as crowded but we still had a wait.