AUGUST 2019 : IRELAND : DAY 10 : Giant’s Causeway - Ballintoy - 22 kms - 6 hours

Day 3 of our Coastal Causeway walk - a long but another spectacular day!

Breakfast at our hostel before Mark and I wandered over to the classic Claremont Hotel for coffee as we waited for our group to arrive to begin our walk today.

Our first stop was only a kilometre down the hill from our hostel. The Giant’s Causeway is a geological phenomenon of 40,000 basalt stone columns formed by volcanic eruptions 60 million years ago.

Looking back at the Giant’s Causeway as we began to walk along the high cliffs towards Dunseverick Castle.

Spellbinding views all along the way

The ruins of Dunseverick Castle

Some wildflowers amongst the thistles and nettles

At this stage Mark has the choice of catching the bus to Ballintoy and welcomed the opportunity after many steep steps and uneven paths.

The view south to our destination today towards Ballintoy

Some challenging sections, including a pleasant walk along Whitepark Bay

Ballintoy Harbour

We had our swim here,with ice-creaming eating tourists sitting along the small promenade, watching in amazement, as we entered the water - a very pleasant dip.

This harbour and beach are famous for being the scenes in several episodes in A Game of Thrones

A cup of tea and large bowls of rhubarb pie and custard for my hungry friends. Then the heavens opened. It poured.  No taxis available, so several patrons at the tea shop volunteered to drive us up to our hostel.

In a comedy of errors, we were dropped off at the wrong carpark. We raced through some glass doors and made ourselves comfortable out of the rain, when it became painfully obvious that we were in someone’s family home and the dog we were patting had nothing to do with the hostel,which was the building to the rear. The hostel has a very lovely aspect with views to the coast over farmlands.

Our last evening together at Fullerton Arms, a few minutes from our hostel. Guinness and Bushmills Whiskey the features.

 

M&M