COAST OF NORTHERN IRELAND
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Fred lives in the Republic of Ireland. Northern Ireland is apart of the U.K. England retains the northern 6 counties as part of an agreement that ended fighting between Ireland and England, at least officially.
We travelled up to Belfast and stayed along a coastal road, driving the northeast corner of Northern Ireland turning south at Portrush and ending in Dungannon.
LEFT: Rocky Irish coast. Heading out for the North on a fine Irish day. |
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ABOVE: Near the water's edge at Dunluce castle.
RIGHT & BELOW: Different Irish landscapes of hilly green and rocky gray. |
| LEFT: Up at Torr's Head, the closet point in mainland Ireland to Scotland. Moe's hair is enjoying the cold wind coming in from the Irish sea. |
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| Early morning fox hunt. England banned hunting with dogs in 2004 |
A fierce fox hunter...I'm talking about the horse. |
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ABOVE & BELOW: Taken on two different days the pics shows some of the things you may come across driving through a typical Irish country side. Polar bears are rarely see though.. |
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Bushmills is the oldest licensed distillery in the world. 400 years is quite impressive. |
| It is located in Bushmill, County Antrim. The grounds aren't as big as you might expect but you get a nice tour and get to try at least 2 of their whiskies. |
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Moe enjoys the finished product, a 10 year reserve.
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| Pretty sure that's not the water they use for the whiskey |
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STOP!!! Dangerous rope bridge ahead
We tried crossing the rope bridge on the first day, but the weather was too stormy, so we had to come back the next day. Take a look at the contrast of the same view on the first (stormy) day versus the next (sunny) day. Pretty impressive, huh? |
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| The Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge is about 100 feet from the water below. It was original used by fishermand to get to the island for better catch. Very shaky but you feel safe on it,, unless you're afraid of heights like Moe. On a clear day you can see the Scottish coast. |
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Enjoying a little quality time on the other side. |
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| We even caught a glimpse of a rainbow. |
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| This says: I am king of the seafarring fisheaters that like red lions and I fears God. |
Dunluce is thought to have been rennovated by Richard de Burgh some time between his birth in1259 and death in 1326. |
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| Dunluce Castle has seen better days. The last one was 400 years ago |
Peanut butter and Jelly: Ireland and ________ |
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| Don't build on a cliff or you might get this for a skyline |
The living room is very spacious and kept in a natural state. |
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| Somebody thought it a good idea to build this on cliff...it wasn't |
One of the castle walls |
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| Not exactly the Cliffs of Dover but... |
More castle inhabitants |
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| The giant Finn MacCool built the causeway to Scotland for a test of gianthood. His wife, Oonagh tricked his opponent Benandonner into believing he was no match for Finn, and he ran back to Scotland tearing up the causeway so he couldn't be followed. |
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POETRY IN MOETION |
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Finn MacCool's long lost cousin, UnCool |
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| Giant's Causeway was actually the result of volcanic activity. The rapid cooling caused the column formation. Most of the columns are hexagons but some have more or less sides. |
Moe has many talents, such as flying, flexing, sitting, and sometimes standing. |
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| Giant's Causeways, Dunluce Castle, and Carrick-a-rede are all very close to each other along the coast. There's amazing scenery everywhere and the environment offers different things depending on rain or sunshine. |
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