Giant's Causeway

We’ve been in Ireland for a year and a half now, but I still haven’t seen much of the country.  It’s slightly embarrassing when friends come to Ireland to visit, take a tour of the country, and leave after a week or so seeing so much more than I have!

Two years before we moved here, hubby took one of these tours himself and saw most of the highlights.  He hates long car rides, so convincing him to take a 4 hour drive to some place he’s already seen is tough, and we don’t usually want to do overnight trips because doggie can’t come with us.  I keep saying I’m going to go off on my own and take one of the day trip tour busses, but I have yet to actually do so.

I was talking about this with my friend, neighbor, and fellow American, YB (or at least that’s what we’ll call her here).  Since Christmas, she has taken me on two trips, the first to The Giant’s Causeway, the second to Powerscourt Estate.  The second is close, but not really hubby’s idea of a good time.  I’ll tell you more about that trip later.

YB needed some items that could only be bought in Northern Ireland.  In case you didn’t know, Northern Ireland is actually part of the UK, as opposed to the rest of the island which is the Republic of Ireland.  Being part of the UK, they have UK stores, and UK products.  Now she only had to go as far as Belfast, but figured since she was going that far anyway, she might as well take me all the way north to the Giant’s Causeway, which was at the top of my to-see-in-Ireland list. 

I had already heard one version of the story of The Giant’s Causeway and thought it was a fun story.  The moral is supposed to be you shouldn’t pick fights with people bigger than you, but my take away was that a clever wife is invaluable.  You can get a quick version of the story, and some of the science, here, or a long version of the story here.

Hard to believe these weren't intentionally laid as a path when there are perfect walkways like this.

We went on the first Monday in January, when most people were back at work, but the school she worked at hadn’t resumed yet. This meant it was cold, but also minimal crowds.  The day started off with some light rain, but the weather forecast for our destination said that the rain would be stopping around noon, so we decided to go ahead with it. As noon approached and we re-checked the weather, it moved the sunshine to 1pm.  Then again to 2pm.  By then we were there and could see a break in the clouds coming, so decided to sit and have a late lunch while we waited for the sunshine.  After eating we gave up and just headed outside, but the rain had mostly fizzled out by that point, and didn’t start up again until we were heading inside.

We had to walk over a kilometer from the visitor center to the stones, but it was a very lovely walk, with cliffs on one side, and beach on the other.  We passed one corner that was, according to the audio guide, the windiest spot in Ireland.  Although I’ve been in worse by my house when the weather turns bad.

The "trail" to the outcropping.

Much scarier when you are headed down.

But look how far out I got to go!

When we finally got to the stones, they were as amazing as I expected.  Since it was such a long trip up, and since I didn’t know if/when I would be back, I wanted to see every bit of it.  YB may not have been too thrilled with that, as she’s seen it a few times and wasn’t as excited to see it again, but she was happy to let me have my fun.  I walked out as far as I could on every bit, and was surprised that I never slipped once, even though the rocks were wet from the rain.  It made it feel like it really was a path made for walking on, and not just a random geological event.  Even with the small crowds, I had to wait for my turn in some areas, but it wasn’t too bad.  The only part I had trouble with was this section where you had to go on this skinny trial on the side of a hill to get out to the next section.  That was a bit scary, but going back was actually worse!  Eventually I had to turn around and head home.

Being in the UK also means that my phone would be roaming, and paying super high roaming charges, so I didn’t have my phone on.  YB’s phone was running low on battery and she didn’t have a car charger.  I thought she knew the way, she thought I knew the way, neither of us could use our phone to look at the map, at least not for long.  We only got slightly lost, but between that, the poor weather and heavy fog slowing us down, and the shopping trip that spurred the whole adventure in the first place, the entire trip was about 12 hours.  Slightly longer than we expected, but it was totally worth it.  It’s hard to explain why it was so fun, but it was beautiful and amazing and I am so glad that I went.