Sunday we decided to go cycling so we drove to a guesthouse near Bushmills
that does cycle hire and then cycled to the Giant's Causeway.
We start off in the Giant's Causeway Centre carpark, looking out to sea towards Portballintrae.
Then take the path down to the Causeway itself. It's not very far but there is a shuttle bus
if you don't fancy it.
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The causeway itself is famous for these hexagonal rocks, which are mostly clustered in one place,
but there are some other columnar features in the surrounding cliffs.
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If you scramble up the rocks from the centre side you suddenly find youself staring straight down this
10 meter drop (at least I did).
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We continued along the path intending to walk around the headland, you can see the path
cutting across the grassy slope in the second picture and then wandering beneath the
sandstone in the third, but this is as far as we could go as the National Trust had
decided it was too dangerous and fenced it off.
So we cut back to the Centre using the higher path (final picture).
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We cycled down to Portballintrae where we had something to eat. We did a bit more cycling but the hills
got the better of us so we returned the bikes and drove back to Ballycastle where I took another
picture of Fair Head, this time in better light, and a few other pics around Ballycastle, including
Rathlin Island (2nd pic) and the Marconi Memorial
(last two).
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On Monday we set off to visit the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge but took a wrong turning and ended up in ...
... where we found this incredibly compact cafe. So we stopped for a cup of tea and a look around.
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Eventually we found the rope bridge which was a lot less spectacular than I expected. We didn't cross
it as there was a bit of a queue and they were asking something like £4 a go. Another picture of
Fair Head (in the distance) and what I'm guessing is "Sheep Island".
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Back in Ballycastle we went for a walk along one of the nearby glens, Glen Shesk, which runs to the East
of Knocklayd, the 514 meter peak you can see in the third picture. We start off on what looks
like an abandoned railway but soon turn off up a quite steep climb into Ballycastle Forest.
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We climbed to about 200 meters before cutting down to the road in the glen and following it back
to Ballycastle. In the rain the dark and gloomy forest is very atmospheric. On the road back to
Ballycastle we spotted a nice
complete arc rainbow, again difficult to photograph, but you can just about make it out.
There is also a second rainbow, but this is even harder to spot.
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Wednesday started out nice as we set out to climb Slieve Donard, the highest peak
in the range. It's the one in the centre distance and is just over 850 meters high.
The two nearer peaks are Millstone Mountain (Left, 460m) and Thomas's Mountain.
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The path starts off in the carpark and the first 300 meters of ascent are through Donard wood.
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We exit the woods near the "Ice House" (not shown) beneath Thomas's Mountain where
can look forward to the col between Slieve Donard and Slieve Commedagh and
back on some great views of Newcastle and the bay.
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At about 600 meters we reach the sadle where there is this cairn and wall. The wall,
about 2 meters high, forms a complete loop around the Silent Vally and Ben Crom Reservoirs,
and passes over quite a few of the peaks. The third picture in this set shows the wall leading
up to Slieve Donard, which is the path we wil be taking, the sixth shows the wall up to the
summit of Slieve Commedagh, with the little stone "house" on top.
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by the time we got to the top of Slieve Donard the weather had closed in quite a bit and
it rained most of the way back down.
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From the top of Slieve Donard we followed the wall South before turning East towards
Bloody Bridge. There are no photos of this leg as it was raining and I slipped and hurt my hand.
From Bloody Bridge we followed the road back to Newcastle.
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