Northern Ireland

July 6, 2018

If you are visiting Ireland and you are on the fence about seeing the sites in Northern Ireland, do it! It’s worth the drive. We loved it!

We started our day visiting Dunluce Castle. It was REALLY windy and a little chilly but the castle ruin was spectacular! The castle is perched on a cliff right on the sea and dates back to the 1500’s.

Here’s what it would have looked like originally.

And when I mean on a cliff, I mean RIGHT on a cliff. So much so that the kitchen actually fell into the ocean back in the 1600’s!

Standing in the ruins of what was once a great meeting hall, now open to the sky, listening to the wind and the waves crashing against the cliffs below was enough to send shivers down my spine.

Next, we drove 10 minutes east along the coast to the Giant’s Causeway; an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption.

According to legend, the columns are the remains of a causeway built by a giant. The story goes that the Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn MacCool), from the Fenian Cycle of Gaelic mythology, was challenged to a fight by the Scottish giant Benandonner. The site did not disappoint! I’ve never seen anything quite like it. My boys would have loved it. And the gift shop was AMAZING! ?

A little windy here too!

We then drove down to Dublin to see a little bit of the city center and return our rental car. The old city center in Dublin was SO charming! The old buildings were filled with beautiful shops and restaurants.

We wandered for quite a while and found some dinner. I’m not a huge fan of fish, but everybody told me that I needed to try fish and chips. So we found a place nearby Beshoff Bros. And let me tell you: it was SO good! Light, flaky, and delicious! Mmmmmmm…

We returned our rental car and caught a train up to Belfast. Now you might be asking yourself, “Self, why did they drive past right past Belfast to return our rental in Dublin if they were going to spend the night in Belfast?” Well, because it was going to cost another $300 if we didn’t bring the rental back to Dublin. YIKES! That was fine though. It gave us a chance to see a bit more of the Irish countryside. And, after three long days of driving a ring around the entire island of Ireland, the 2-hour train ride from Dublin to Belfast was relaxing.

Our hotel was only a 15-minute walk from the train station in Belfast, but we got in pretty late, so we took an Uber to our hotel. We stayed in the city center right across from Belfast City Hall at the Ten Square Hotel; a beautiful historic building that received a sleek, modern remodel throughout the interior. It was lovely. We really enjoyed our stay.

The next morning we slept in, grabbed some breakfast, and we were off to the airport to catch our flight to Iceland! More to come! ?