Dunluce Castle, Bushmill’s Distillery and the Dark Hedges

A quick photo op was given of Dunluce Castle. The castle is in disrepair, but even from a distance it looked very large. Numerous shots were made during the filming of Game of Thrones . . . we are going to have to watch that show!

In 1608, a distillery was founded in the town of Bushmill to make whiskey. They use three ingredients - malted barley, water, and yeast. Now how did they even know how to make malted barley in 1608, but someone did! During the time of Prohibition, whisky was outlawed in the US, but it was still made both in the US and imported. In order to distinguish between whisky made in Scotland and whiskey made in Ireland, an e was added to the word. The distillery has a nice guided tour, but we were not included in it. They also have a nice gift shop and tasting room. We did purchase some vanilla whiskey fudge, and I must say, the whiskey added a nice flavor to the fudge.

Our final stop was the Dark Hedges, another Game of Thrones place. The owner of a mansion planted 150 beech trees to emphasize the road going to his house. Over the years, they have lost 70 of them, but they are still very impressive. I cannot imagine driving down the lane when they were all leafed out!

Giant’s Causeway

Back in the late 70s, Mom and Dad came to Ireland, and afterwards they showed us their slides. By the time the slideshow was over, we were all nearly asleep, not because it was boring, but we had eaten a big meal and needed a nap. But the only slide I remember was one of the Giant's Causeway. Today we got to see it live. When we were in Iceland, we saw a similar formation, but we believe this one is a big larger, and its legend is more well-known than the Icelandic one. We had to walk a mile to get to the Causeway , , , and we had to return . . . but we needed the exercise.

The volcanic basalt cooled in such a way that it created the hexagonal columns. When they cooled, they also created muffins or ball-and-joint formations. We could see all three.

The geologic features fascinate us, and when comparing the Icelandic columns and the Irish ones, they are very similar . . . and different.

The Coastal Highway

We have driven the coastal highway in California. We have driven the Ring Road in Iceland. And thank goodness we were not driving the Coastal Highway in Belfast. Luckily, the drivers were quite polite and yielded when necessary . . . but we would have been nervous wrecks if we had been driving. The beauty of the highway certainly matches that of the other two places, though the green hillsides here surpassed both of the others. In all fairness, however, we were in Iceland in April, before the greening had taken place. I suspect it may have been similar during the summer to what we experienced today. The narrowness of the highway also surpassed the other two. Both the Ring Road and Highway 1 have adequately wide lanes and shoulders. This one had neither, and it had a wall built on the ocean side of the road. At one spot, we went under an arch that we would have hated to have had to share with anyone.

At one stop, we did see three islands - one a rookery, one a sheep island, and one a place where fishermen could lower their boats to the ocean, thereby avoiding taxes. The one used by the fishermen had a suspension bridge that is still used . . . by tourists . . . but not by these tourists!

We also passed three caves on the coastal highway. One was a cave where a woman distilled poteen, a very potent Irish liquor. She was caught and told if she continued to sell it, she would go to jail. She got around the ruling by giving the drink away but charging for the water she used.

The second cave was used as a blacksmith shop, and the third (hidden by the greenery) was used as a hedge school, which was a school to teach Catholocism when the religion was prohibited.

Carnlough

Our second day in Belfast, after a good night's sleep, began with a tour to the Giant's Causeway, via several small towns. The first town was Carnlough, which is situated on a harbor. It is a cute town with a memorial to Paddy, the pigeon, that delivered messages during WWII and one time, and flew from Normany to his keeper in just over 4 hours.

It is also the site of one of the scenes from the Game of Thrones. Beautiful steps lead down to the harbor, and in the Game of Thrones scene, one of the actresses saves her own life by dragging herself up the steps. Not a very glamorous scene but apparently an important one!

We also purchased our lunches in Carnlough, and I will always remember the delicious Spanish grapes we purchased. Since we do not get grapes from Spain in the US, I don't know that I have ever eaten grapes from there, but now I have and wow! They don't get much better than that! Then we loaded up the drove up the Coastal Highway to our next stop.

The Titanic Experience

One of Belfast's newer exhibits is the Titanic Experience, which takes visitors through the entire story of the Titanic. Shipbuilding was a big business in Belfast in the late 1800s, early 1900s, and the entire ship was designed and built here. The museum begins with the engineering plans and design, and visitors experience the sights and sounds of building, launching, and ultimately, sinking of the ship. Personal stories, artifacts, letters, and interviews comprise the displays, along with several examples of the enormity of the project. Hearing testimony of the survivors, understanding the communication difficulties, and listening to the radio transmissions brought the actual tragedy to life.

This exhibit is well worth seeing . . .

Next Stop - Belfast

Before we even left for Peru and Ecuador, we already had planned our next trip - Ireland to watch the 'Cats play. And it was here before we knew it! We spent the majority of the summer in NM, and now, August 13, we are headed to Belfast! The plane trip gratefully went smoothly, and despite the fact that we got little sleep, we powered through. Luckily, we decided not to drive, and it is a good thing . . . as Don said, he would have had a head-on collision before we even got out of the parking lot at the airport! It does appear as if drivers are pretty sane here, and although there is plenty of traffic, it is not California crazy . . . Our driver told us about a sandwich shop near our hotel, which ultimately became both lunch and dinner, but that was ok. We will eat plenty over the next two weeks to make up for one missed meal!