Ireland day 0427. Tuesday 29 November 2022- Antrim2202 *

Ireland day 0427. Tuesday 29 November 2022- Antrim2202

Today’s summary	Drove from our B&B at Ballintoy to the Giant’s Causeway. Spent most of the day there having a good look round and walking on the cliffs. Stopped in Ballycastle on the way back to the B&B in the evening
Today’s weather	Mostly overcast and murky with mist above about 100m. No real rain though. Moderate westerly wind and a rough sea. Appx 8C. Feeling raw

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The green line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Giants Causeway

Commentary

(Summary blog only. Last full blog was Day 0368).

Took a short drive from our B&B at Ballintoy back west along the coast road to the Giant’s Causeway.

Spent almost the whole day there as there was lots to see along the coast and then from the cliffs above. The Causeway itself was spectacular (it is a World Heritage Site after all) and not too busy. Took a fascinating audio tour on the geology, which revealed the basalt was mostly laid down 60 mln years ago, when the North Atlantic Ocean started to split apart. Had a good walk on the cliff tops and lunch in the café afterwards (though not much on offer today as a result of staff shortages).

Dropped in to Ballycastle on the way home, just as it was starting to get dark

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


I was actually more impressed with the Causeway than I expected. I had had some slightly downbeat reports from previous visitors but I didn’t think the negative views (most said the site was smaller than they expected) were justified.	The sea was pretty wild towards the end of the headland

Along the side of the main causeway, through the Giants Gate	Onion skin exfoliation on some of the 60 mln year old lava

The Lower Path from the headland overlooking the Amphitheatre onwards has been closed since 1984 due to the risk of landslides and shows no signs of ever being reopened	Ballycastle by night. We were almost tempted to jump on the ferry and make the 40 minute journey to Rathlin Island, but the last boat had already departed. And it was almost completely dark anyway

The Organ – the tallest basalt columns in the area