NO FREE LUNCH

Date:  Sept 12.
Today we were to tour the sights along the Antrim Coast, including the Giant’s Causeway, the Rope Bridge, and a few towns along the way.  Didn’t quite turn out as we expected.  After an excellent breakfast by Maggie, the Villa was still enveloped in a pea soup fog.  Just what you want for zipping down one lane roads between stone walls.  Maggie assured us that it probably would be clearer once we made it to the North Coast (Cushenden is on the east coast and gets more fog).  She was right, and things cleared up around noon.
There are ruins and there are ruins.  In Ireland, which has a huge tourist economy, just about anything qualifies as a sight to see.  A good example is Dunseverick “castle.”

Granted, there’s about 1500 years of history here, but still . . .
This was just the harbinger of a number of disappointments this day.  We decided to head to the “end” of our trip first, and then work our way back in the afternoon, figuring the coast would be clearer for the things we wanted to see.  Thus, Port Stewart was our first stop.  We had thought that Portrush would be our end destination, but Maggie said that we’d find more upscale shops in Stewart.  It is a rather imposing place with its massive walled port.

But, we didn’t find much in the way of shops, unless we just missed wherever they were centered.  We did, however, find something to buy.  OK, I did.  The Butterfat Kid strikes again.  (By the way, I just had my cholesterol levels checked, and I’m doing just fine, thanks to Lipitor!)

Have to say, there wasn’t a whole lot to recommend Port Stewart.  We started back, eastward, along the coast.

Our first stop was Dunluce Castle, perched on the edge of a rocky headland. 

The castle resisted several sieges through the Middle Ages, but on one stormy night in 1639, half the kitchen fell into the sea along with the servants working there.  That was the last straw for the lady of the castle, who shut the place down and moved several miles inland.  It began its slow succumbing to nature, leaving today only low walls and broken stubs of towers.  Still, the site is a beauty.

On now to the Giant’s Causeway.  Or not.  This is one of those alleged “must see” sites when visiting Northern Ireland, and is a World Heritage Site.  It’s a five-mile stretch of coast with thousands of hexagonal pillars that were formed by volcanic eruptions about 10 million years ago.  The site is supposed to be free, and if you happened to hike into the area, that’s true.  However, there is NO parking for miles around except in the lots adjacent to the visitors center, and that costs 8.5 pounds (at roughly $1.60 per pound) per person, not per car, to park there.  Sounds like an entrance fee to me!  We all decided that we didn’t need to see this at a collective cost of about $55.  Hmph.  Free indeed. 
(Image from the Web)  Actually, similar formations are found at our own Devil’s Postpile National Monument near Mammoth Mountain, California (eastern Sierras), which we visited in 2008.  Seen one basalt column, seen them all.  After considering and discarding various ruses and illegal parking schemes, we abandoned the Causeway and proceeded east.  Despite the gouging, this Antrim Coast truly is beautiful.

Up there somewhere is the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge.  For 200 years, fisherman had strung a rope bridge, 100 feet above the water and spanning a 60-foot chasm, between the mainland and an island.  They used the waters off the island to trap salmon making the “turn” from the east to the north coast.  Today, it’s another tourist attraction.  None of us felt the need to do anything more than observe it from a distance, and walking chasms isn’t my thing anyway.  You couldn’t get right down to where the bridge started, as they have installed a pay gate along the path that prevents you from accessing it (or seeing it) without forking over the lucre (about 6 pounds per).  The walk to the bridge is a nice one.

And the view of the crossing is rather spectacular.

Ah, but there’s nothing like good old terra firma.

I can’t believe how lucky we have been with the weather.  In September!  On our way back to the Villa, we got this example of how civilized Ireland is.  I want one of these for my front yard.  I wonder how they select the sites for placing these?
So, we weren’t much impressed with Port Stewart, we were mostly ticked off at the outrageous gouging at the Giant’s Causeway, and were too timid (and cheap) to walk the rope bridge, but it still was a beautiful day in Northern Ireland.

As is most evident in this shot from the front of Farm House Villa.  Yeah, I could take this.