Day 12 - CS Lewis Square, Carrickfergus and Part 1 of the Antrim Coast

Saturday, 26 September
Today we pack up and head to the Antrim Coast. I'm hoping to get to Carrickfergus for the first tour of the day, but I'm keen to stop at C S Lewis Square in Belfast on the way because I can't see any chance of us getting over there while we're staying in Belfast later in our trip. We've arranged an early key handover -Walter is meeting us here at 07:30 - and he's on time, indeed a little early but he doesn't disturb us. We should have looked outside sooner. As always the departure process takes a little time, especially when you have a little chat along the way, but we get away with only a slight slip in the schedule heading off at about 07:50.
We've been cautiously warned about the Belfast traffic, so I'm a little nervous as to whether the detour makes sense. Wondering where all the traffic we've told about is, we catch up to a long string of traffic at an intersection all waiting to make a turn. There's no traffic lights and no round about. At first we wonder at the lack of regulation at this busy spot, but then as we watch, the drivers just manage this situation by the application of courtesy and turn taking, notwithstanding who would legally have right of way. Wow! If it aint broke, don't fix it. Take a bow folks, this is really an impressive thing to witness.

Maugrim, CS Lewis Square, Belfast

It's a pretty easy drive for the remainder of our route, passing through very attractive leafy suburbs. As we turn into Westminster Ave North from Holywood Road, we find a couple of small car parks with space available. Expecting parking to be challenging we grab the first we see, go to pay and display and find that actually this is a free car park. With hoods up to keep off the light rain, we head towards CS Lewis Square and within about15  metres we see that there's actually an enormous car park immediately next to the square and there's spots available immediately next to the entrance. Oh. Never mind. Let's make this quick.  Inside the entry there's raised garden beds which seem tailor made to accommodate numerous statues of characters from the Narnia series and they are all very well done. Hubby loved the way you needed to go looking for the different characters, tucked away behind greenery rather than sitting like pimples on a pumpkin in the middle of paving. I think my favourite is Maugrim, I love the glowing red eyes. Hubby felt that Aslan looked a bit scrawny and didn't match the picture he had of him in his mind.  Now here's where we make a bit of a mistake. I didn't realise we needed to go to another little square for the statue of The Searcher, by the look of it, it would only take about 5 minutes to detour on the way to the car, but the rain is continuing anyway and we've places to be. Carrickfergus here we come.

Looking towards Castle Street, from outside Carrickfergus Castle

The promenade at Carrickfergus

I've been keen to see Carrickfergus because it's the setting for the Adrian McKinty crime novels I read as part of my preparation for this trip, and of course, who doesn't love a castle that's still in good condition. We have no difficulty parking in the car parks nearby along Marine Highway. Another case of pay and display we line up at the machine. It doesn't take cards. Do you have any coin? Yeah. I pull out my coins hoarded from our last trip to the UK. they slip through and are returned. What's going on? Puzzled we let other people pay and go and finally a nice lady just pays our parking for us and explains that these coins have been withdrawn from circulation, you need to change them at the bank. Same goes for some of our notes which we know from trying to use a fiver earlier in our trip. This kind lady also helps me out by explaining that the doors to the bank are around in the main street, the glass doors on the car park side aren't used by the public. Excellent.

Carrickfergus Town Hall

We're not going to get a better opportunity than this to change the money so around we go, past the mural and pillory (The Stocks on google maps) to the Ulster Bank. Wait in a short queue, a staff member comes to see what service people in the queue are seeking and extracts us over to another counter where I show her what I've got and she picks out the ones that don't work now. The UK has upgraded the the technology used in their currency. Goodbye paper notes, welcome Australian invented polymer banknotes with numerous hard to forge security features. I guess that being the case, it's not surprising that the new British notes look quite a lot like Australian money.

Haven't been able to find out anything about this statue, who made it, or why it's here -
gasp! It's not even listed on google

Now armed with money that works, we head back across to the promenade to walk up to the castle. At first I puzzle at a streak of rusted metal that been installed. What's it meant to be? I enquire of Hubby. He's on the other side of it and as I come around I can see it better, it's a person diving into the water.

Carrickfergus Castle

A sign outside the castle explains that a large basalt rock known as a "carraig" was located at this place, when Fergus the first King of Scotland was shipwrecked in a storm and drowned here in AD501. His mission was to find a well that he believed could heal his leprosy. Well, he may not have found the well, but one way or another he did avoid the inevitable consquences of his leprosy. 600 years later the castle was built on "Carraig-Fergus" and here we are today, marvelling. 

We're pretty much bang on time for the first guided tour of the day. Unfortunately the tower is closed while they replace the roof, so there's not a great deal to see. Nonetheless, our guide does a great job relating a mix of history and modern anecdotes so we get a sense of the castle through time. The weather mostly cooperates as we stream past officers quarters, or stand marvelling at canons of various venerable ages, listening intently to stories of seiges, murder holes and and sunday baths. 

Tour concluded we explore the last few nooks and crannies. Around the castle figures have been installed, illustrating the usage of various locations. Soldiers pouring filth down the murder holes, those from another era resplendent in red coats, aiming guns down over the walls, a genteel lady in medieval dress sitting in a window embrasure. My favourite by far is the figure of Cuthbert the Crossbowman sitting on his leg, other knee raised aiming his weapon out through arrow slits in a small but beautiful basement space overlooking the water, tucked away where you need to hunt for him.  

I mosey on over to have a quick squiz at the video about the restoration works.  Together again we retreat from the weather into a large demountable space where there's some armour on display and a large screen with a video running giving information about the Castle. We sit and watch. It's not long and most of it repeats things we've heard on the guided tour. Our opportunities exhausted we check the time, we've taken about an hour and a half at the Castle. That's good, I was thinking it might take double that knowing us, so even with slippage this morning we're back on schedule. We drive away but as we pass along the Marine Highway I see a market is running in the next section of carpark. We turn back because I've spotted something interesting. There's no trouble parking in the same car park as the market. Most stalls are selling things we can't use, but I'm entranced by the vegetable stall and their large range of potatoes, small sacks, great big sacks all brightly coloured and containing named varieties we don't get at home. 

My interest in the potatoes draws the stall holder's attention and despite my explaining that I'm just on holidays and find the different varieties of potato here interesting, he spends a few minutes explaining the different uses the types on display and I'm touched by his kindness. He clearly loves what he does. But the potatoes aren't the only interesting thing here. There's also the largest brown onions I've seen in my life - they are huge with beautiful glossy skins and also a box of Cob Nuts. What's a Cob Nut? Google helps me out, its a sort of hazle nut. Oh, interesting. I've never seen hazlenuts in their natural state before either.

Distractions out of the way, we head over to our target stall which is busily making and selling traditional griddle breads, and they look great. We grab two for a picnic assuming that we'll find a sensible way to eat them. Often they are toasted, but these are so fresh they are good to eat as they are.
Back on the road, we set the TomTom for Glenarm as we head down the Marine Highway. Having done this as we're already moving we totally fluke a serendipitous route, for aside from lovely rural countryside we go right past The Dairy at Glenoe. A hastily called stop, Hubby seems doubtful as to what I hope to achieve here. Butter! I exclaim, they might have butter for our fresh griddle bread. He's not convinced, but it doesn't matter, who doesn't like a specialty food store and this place looks pretty up market.

Inside in one section there's lots of people enjoying what appears to be very nice food. We're tempted to just eat here, lunch time's not that long away and we didn't have much in the way of breakfast, just another tub each of the Clandeboye yoghurt. No, we need to eat our picnic, so other than getting a bit destracted by some small batch roasted nuts, I'm scouring the fridge cabinets for a small amount of butter. In the end I ask the young bloke serving and he leads me to a shelf stocking an artisan butter. No plain butter but hey, the Dulse and Seasalt variety sounds good. From the cheeses I can't resist a small wedge of one described as Cheddar with Walnut. What are you going to do with that? Hubby enquires. Ah, eat it, with the griddle bread. What about the butter? ...ah.. we can have some of each.. Butter, nuts and cheese on board, Hubby's got a question for the lovely young man. "Do you sell plastic knives?" Oh, good thinking!  Man I wish I'd done our usual thing and packed a simple picnic set in our checked luggage. Handed this vital quest, the young man heads off to consult and come up with a solution for us, in this case a fairly strong looking plastic spoon. That'll do the trick. Basic but workable. Thanks very much. Right, that's lunch sorted.
Throughout our travels so far, Hubby has been a bit curious about the wind turbines here and there, those we've seen have just been one here or there. At home we have huge wind farms with dozens of massive turbines arrayed across the landscape. He had asked Ian about this and we were told we'd see larger wind farms if we were coming up to the Antrim Coast, so we're pleased to be spotting some of those along this way too, but still nothing on a scale that we see at home.

The weather has been changeable today, light drizzle quite a bit and now we're getting periods of sunshine with the resulting rainbows across the countryside. As we near Glenarm the road joins the Coast Road. Hubby's been keeping an eye out for places to pull over and admire the views. The sun is dominant as we pull into Park Head, a rainbow over the fish farms and a crusting of interesting rocks around the shore encourage us to break out our picnic here on the handy picnic table. Sure, the rain might return at any minute but we'll cope.

We split our griddle bread, and have some with Dulse and Seasalt butter and some with the Walnut Cheddar. A delicious and remarkably filling lunch. We are given the hurry up by some very fine drizzle, but we've had a lovely break here sitting quietly with not much to do but admire the scenery and puzzle over what the heck these contraptions on all the picnic tables are...

What on earth are these things for?

It's less than a mile from Park Head to to Glenarm, we're heading to Glenarm Forest. A lap around the village, Hubby heads through the stone gates and we park up in the little clearing obviously intended for the purpose. It's a short walk and reputably it's squirrel habitat, you never know your luck. Anyway, we need the exercise and although we could also walk at Glenarif, it's not raining now, a break in the weather in the hand is worth two in the bush afterall. The sign bids us welcome and describes the forest through the seasons and the wildlife that can be found in this beautiful haven. Springtime in the forest sounds lovely.

Consulting the map, we decide we'll do the shorter of the loops going as far as the falls, as shown on the handy Glenarm Forest Walks Leaflet I've opened via the data on my phone. This is handy because it gives you some information about different things along the way.
The forest is very pretty and the path quite easy and level most of the way taking us gently uphill along a forest path then we need to come down some stairs to join the track heading back along the river. Squirrel feeder stations are attached to trees along the path, but we are out of luck on the squirrel front this time.

As we walk back along the river, the terrain in the water reminds me to keep an eye out for dippers and kingfishers, I have no idea if it's too late in the year now, but we're not working the birdwatching too hard and don't see anything moving. 

We only see one of the four sculptures they have along the trail

Coca Cola Falls

Noone makes artwork better than mother nature.
I love the bands of texture and the green velvet blotches on the stark white of the tree trunks. 

The walk has taken about 45 minutes, we agree that was a very nice way to spend the time as we climb back into the car. Head now to the visitor's centre, which we have narrowly missed as it is closed in the afternoon today. Facilities also locked. Hmm. Apparently there is some over at the seaside park so I set off on foot to find them. It turns out they are quite a long way away over near the children's playground and recreational facilities (makes sense). It's always nice to have some time on foot to soak in the atmosphere of the place, but it does consume some more time. 

Without the need to find the facilities I never would have noticed what a great playground and games court they have here and the view across to the church from the pedestrian bridge across the waterway is probably as good as you need. 

Perhaps most impressive of all is the sign in the toilets. Well, well. I really didn't expect to see this campaign here, but I suppose skin cancer is everwhere and I've only visited in the shoulder seasons, keen to avoid the warmest weather. 

Almost back to the car, I make a point to walk closer to the little harbour and before long we're back on the road heading to Glenariff Forest Park. It's an interesting drive up the glen to the park where we find that the walk appears to be in what we would call a gully between a large area of open cleared farmland and a huge car park. We check the time, consider our physical state and the opportunity cost, the weather looks OK but there's pretty dark clouds heading this way. I've seen some photos and the Waterfall Walk does look lovely, but all in all, an Australian doesn't need to cross the globe for waterfalls on this scale. I think I'm ready to prioritise other things on the list. 

Torr Head Scenic Route and Cushendun Caves, here we come. There's some truly impressive views along the way. I'm playing with the Canon EOS M5 and the little light dial. That seems handy.

As we're turning into Cushendun, the sky in the distance is slate grey and threatening, but the sunshine on the white of the houses makes them shine. White is such a great colour for houses in these conditions. There's an easily found carpark off the main route into the village just as we cross the bridge, so we park and set about trying to find the Caves. It's not difficult but you need to know where to look. We walk back across the bridge and around past the Cushendun Hotel, past some residential units. A large flock of rooks and jackdaws is foraging in the tidal zone beyond the sea wall as we pass a well located holiday let called the Fisherman's Cottage. Around the point we find ourselves with a bevy of others keen to check out Melisandre's Cave from Game of Thrones.
Everyone politely tries to keep out of each other's way, taking turns in key spots. Information boards show the film crew on site. Some patience is required to capture photos without a scattering of people across the site. The rock here is another change from what we've seen elsewhere. This is conglomerate, which makes me think of my Mum who taught us about the different types of rock. I'm sure she'd be interested to see this, the stones fixed together are much larger than I've seen before.

The "caves" appear to be more like tunnels, open at either end. Through one we find an enticing pathway and gates. Imagining in our minds the scenes in Game of Thrones, I explore down between the large rocks to the shore and replay in my mind the way they may have gone. I can't wait to watch the episode again and see if I can place it. Having spent about half an hour, I return via an easier, higher made pathway and as we near the bridge back to the carpark, we pause to consider the memorial statue of a goat erected in remembrance of a clearly traumatic outbreak of disease in the district.
As we continue on the Torr Head Scenic Route,  we pass some interesting old buildings, slow on the draw I snap a quick memory jogger. Looking at it now, the chimneys and the tin roof communicate the poverty and perhaps an emigrant child with money to send home. It sits evocatively in the landscape. I hope these old places are not lost over time.

We continue to play cat and mouse with rainbows, the latest making its appearance between ocean views and grazing sheep. Everywhere we go, there's fuchsia hedges, still flowering, mostly a ubiquitous cheery bright red with red-purple corolla. These provide food and shelter, as we learn from an information board along the way, for the caterpillar of the beautiful Elephant Hawk Moth. How I would love to see one of those. We know from our time in Scotland that the Elephant Hawk Moth also feeds on Rose Bay Willowherb.
Passing down to Torr Head, we pass a large ruin and pull up at the end of the road. I'll just get out for a quick happy snap, looking up I quake at the effort required to go up to the top. I couldn't be bothered walking up that slope!

Next thing I know my feet have carried me away, through a little gate, up a well trod but still green grass path, around a hairpin bend and onward to the site of another ruined building, perched on the top of the hill. The interior is a jumble of fallen building materials. Across the seas views of Alba have followed all the way along the coast from Glenarm. To my left and right views along the coast appear as a scene of rural tranquility. A seam in the ocean causes me to consider the cause, is it wind shadow or waters meeting. How curious.

I make my way down the slope only to find Hubby heading up. Is it much further? No, it's not far and not as strenuous as it looks, but you don't see a great deal more. He heads up anyhow, just to be thorough, while I linger below.
Driving away, Hubby observes that the ruin was burnt out by Republicans back in the day. It's back up for a sharp turn among a sweet little cluster of buildings and back on our way to Murlough Bay aka Slaver's Bay, Essos and the Stormlands.

It's a very scenic drive along a narrow road, officially ending in a large turning area with some handy Game of Thrones information boards. The road leads on down to the sea and there is a sign indicating this road is for ACCESS ONLY. Having been in this situation a few times now, I feel it might be helpful to explain that in blunter language this appears to be intended to mean - NO ACCESS - KEEP OUT.  After all, those with a right to access will know to go on. However, at this stage we don't know this so on we go creeping along carefully, over some quite hairy sections with dramatic humps in the road. It's very pretty at the end, but nonethe-less had we understood the sign we would not have intruded. There appears to be no disturbance caused fortunately and we pause for only a few minutes and return back along the road, praying we don't meet anyone along the way. But we do, fortunately this occurs in a spot where passing is just possible but it could have been ugly. On the return there's views of a striking promontory which I now believe is Fair Head.

The return up the legitimate section brings recognisable landscapes from the signage. Further up we return past a cross to which we paid scant attention on the way down assuming it to be some religious pilgrimage site. Again my conscience pokes me and we pull over for a photograph so I can find out just what it is about. We are right, it is a site of pilgrimage, but one for the Irish Revolutionary Roger Casement who was hung as a traitor in 1916.
The day is fading as we make our way, fighting the clock to get to Ballycastle where my quest is quickly satisfied. As we enter the town I have my eyes peeled as we navigate to the harbour. There it is! Over there! A carpark is nearby. I prowl about looking for the best angle to capture the elegance of the work.

The Children of Lir, Ballycastle

Our last stop for the day is Kinbane Castle where a short walk brings us views as splendid as any we've seen this trip. Quite breathtaking. An assessment not dulled by time.
Time now to head to our overnight accommodation at the Fullerton Arms, Ballintoy. Bags safely in our room we head downstairs for dinner, taking care to examine the Game of Thrones door and costumes before heading into the main dining room. I would have enjoyed my dinner more had we ordered less. A starter serve of ribs would certainly be adequate for mains. Hubby's chowder with delicious wheaten bread is lovely too. But we really didn't need the burger or the interesting interpretaton of nachos. They were fine but the overindulgence takes the gloss off the overall experience for me. Now there's a surprise. I bet you never imagined the point would come were I was fed up with eating, but there you are. We all have our limits.