Dunluce Castle was our next stop. Another repeat stop for Brian and me, we arrived at Dunluce around 4:30 p.m. with just enough time to quickly explore the ruins before the gates closed at 5:00. As it is situated jetting out on a cliff, the views from this castle are beautiful. During a dinner party in 1640, a piece of the cliffside broke off, taking some of the castle, including the kitchen and most of the staff, with it. The two older kids enjoyed speculating about the former kitchen location and climbing up and down the steep tower stairs, while Eilidh spent most of this visit snoozing in the Tula carrier.
The kids have been very excited to see Giant’s Causeway. As the story goes, a long, long time ago, a giant named Finn McCool heard about another powerful giant living over in Scotland. Wanting to prove himself superior, Finn built a large bridge from Ireland to Scotland and snuck across to defeat this other giant. When he got there, however, he noted that the Scottish Giant was much larger than he himself was. He rushed back home and had his wife dress him as a baby. The Scottish giant, who had heard of Finn’s plans to fight him, arrived in Ireland to get the fight started. When he saw Finn’s “baby,” however, he decided that he did not want to fight the giant who sired this massive baby. He ran back to Scotland tearing the bridge up behind him but leaving the hexagonally-shaped pillars you can still see and climb on today.
We got a parking spot close to the visitors center and, for a pound each, quickly caught a shuttle that took us directly to the causeway. The kids (and adults too) spent a solid 60 minutes climbing around on the causeway, taking photos and enjoying the view. Eilidh spent the first bit in the Tula on Brian’s back, but even she got in on the action. She had a blast hop, hop, hopping from one pillar to another, frightening her GG with the heights she was willing to navigate!
We caught the last shuttle of the night back to the visitor’s center and browsed the gift shop briefly before loading into the car.
Our next mission was Kinbane Castle. Touted as “worth the effort” on Trip Advisor, the ruined castle was off-the-beaten-path. While it is seldom frequented due to the steep hike from the car park to the castle itself, we decided to drag the kids to conquer this challenge nonetheless. Not gonna lie, despite the concrete “steps” placed to help visitors down the side of the mountain to the castle, with the exception of Noah, we were all pretty worn out by the time we reached the bottom.
We wandered around some cliff-side trails at the base of the castle to catch some photos before entering the ruins themselves. With Eilidh on my back, I climbed up an additional little trail located above the ruins for some spectacular views. The big kids and Brian got in on the action as well, though GeeGee opted to skip this part of the climb. While there was one additional trail visible that would have taken us even higher out onto a jetty, the trail was very narrow with sheer drops of either side and we deemed the risk unnecessary.
None of us were looking forward to the climb back up the mountain, but we did it! I managed to get Eilidh three-quarters of the way to the top before finally convincing Brian to give me a break.
A chippery called Morton’s provided dinner. The kids had cod chunks and chips, GeeGee and I had the regular cod portion, and Brian tried the “jumbo” size. Eilidh enjoyed a few chips but spent the majority of the dinner squeaking at the seagulls perked on the wall of the outdoor eating area. GeeGee was appalled when she saw the huge size of her “regular” piece of cod, but then she proceeded to eat all but a couple of bites she sacrificed to her growing grandson.
The jumbo portion of cod, along with a handful of unsalted fries.
As a behind-the-scenes aside, there was no toilet available at Morton’s, so we drove to the nearby, fancy, self-disinfecting toilet experience that cost Noah and GeeGee a combined 20 pence.
With 4 days of our trip already completed and no official ice cream stops in the books, a local ice cream shop called Maud’s was next on the itinerary. Emmie chose plain chocolate while Brian had a scoop of orange-chocolate chip and a scoop of honeycomb. His review of the ice-cream? “The orange chocolate chip was fine but the honeycomb was one of the best ice creams I’ve ever had.” GeeGee’s Belgium chocolate chip ice cream was simply “okay.”
Our last stop of the day was a brief sojourn to The Dark Hedges. We’ve never seen Game of Thrones, but this short lane with cool-looking trees appears as “King’s Road” in the movie. Noah originally didn’t want to get out of the car but then he changed his mind and wanted to walk the whole length of the lane before going home.
Everyone was exhausted at this point, and everyone (except Brian, who was driving) fell asleep at some point on the hour drive back to our Belfast home. Baths and bed quickly followed our return, looking forward to the flight to Spain.
Morton’s Ratings
- Brian: 8/10 (“It was good.”)
- Amanda: 7/10 (“Very good, but I’ve had others I liked better, like in London and Iceland.”)
- Noah: 7/10 (no comments)
- Emmie: 10/10 (“I love it!”)
- GeeGee: 8/10 (would have been higher if Brian had the staff add salt to the fish and fries)
Apologies for the lengthy food reviews. They were included today per Brian’s request as he has felt the last few blog posts were lacking in this aspect.