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Saturday 26 August 2017

Our Summer Holiday in Northern Ireland

So while everyone else is jetting off to sunny islands (or its seems like it from my Facebook feed!), we opted for a last minute trip back to Northern Ireland.  We had visited earlier at the start of the school holidays, bringing across our youth girls football team. It was a huge success,  and enjoyed it so much that we decided to come back.  So the three if us (me, Mr S and Miss L), packed up, leaving my older two at home....
We booked a last minute ferry booking with P&O from Cairnryan to Larne, I can't say we had the most pleasant crossing not because of the sea conditions, but it seemed that Miss L was slightly more travel sick on this occasion!!

We had booked into the same hostel in the lovely Ballintoy, Sheep Island View, we had had such a lovely stay with them earlier in the summer that a return visit was without question.  Obviously named due to the fact there is a perfect view of Sheep Island, with its flat grassy top, so named because it was considered to have been able to "fatten 9, feed 10, and starve 11" sheep.





Ballintoy:

The village of Ballintoy is famous for the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, we didn't visit on this occasion as we dared the bridge on our last visit.  A must if you are ever over this part of Ireland.  I would advise pre-booking during peak tourist months, its worth knowing that you can make the walk along to the rope bridge without paying, you only pay if you want to cross the bridge.  It is about 0.7 mile walk from the car park to the bridge.



I am no Game of Thrones fan, but I am told that quite a lot of the early series was filmed in and around Ballintoy.  The rope bridge car park (the overflow) and the harbour, both famous filiming places.  Apparently you can do Game of Thrones tours on special buses, taking you too filming places (certainly not my cup of tea, but clearly lots of people do)

The harbour in Ballintoy is just beautiful.  We walked from our hostel down to the harbour, enjoyed a hot drink in the Rooks CafĂ© which also has the most amazing cakes.  We then continued our walk along the path which takes you to the stunning White Sands beach, a must see beach if you are ever in these parts.



Elephant Rock:

On our last visit we didn't manage to find Elephant Rock, so this was one of our missions.  On this lovely morning walking along the path from Ballintoy Harbour to White Sands beach, and yes what did we happen upon the rock itself.  It takes no explanation why its called Elephant Rock!


The Dark Hedges:

Another must see spectacular close to Ballymoney.  An amazing phenomenon of trees planted in the 18th century, and another filming location for Game of Thrones.  It can be busy so be aware, but definitely worth a look if you are in the area.  We would have loved to visit in the evening, but we didn't get chance.  Stories talk about a grey coast who comes out in the evening, weaving between the trees


Kinbane Head/Castle:

So you know when you are heading out for the day, this particular day it was to Ballycastle, and you see a typical brown tourist sign, and think we will just see what it is like, and then you come across a gem.  I think this particular gem had to be a holiday highlight.  A secluded headland with a castle ruin.  Even the 140 steps up and down didn't ruin it!




The day was a blustery day to say the least, not a day to be walking up to the head.  Oh no, wait ,that is unless you are my hubby.  He did actually just tell me he later googled, "Kinbane Head and fall", to find yes someone had fallen off there!!

We did quite a lot of geocaching while we were away and one of our favourites, yes you guessed it, was hidden here also.  We would definitely add this to the list of our favourite geocaches

The Glens of Antrim:

Our ferry home was later in the evening, so we decided to head back to Larne along the coastal road and take in some of the Glens.  Now I will be honest it started off not being the best, especially for Miss L, it involves quite a bit of driving, up one glen and down another.  However we knew that one of the glens had some picturesque waterfalls, and fortunately we stumbled across them.  Glenariff Country Park, was well worth the stop and we spent about 4 hours here. 

We took the shorter walk, "Waterfalls Walk", and wow what an amazing place.  It helped as there had been the most violent thunder and lightening storm the night before, in fact many places in Londonderry hit with flash floods.  This storm made the waterfalls like torrents.  Well worth a stop, and we would definitely go back




All in all a fantastic holiday destination.  The places are beautiful, the beaches are amazing, and the people are so just lovely.  We only paid one car parking fee and that was at the Country Park (and worth it), amazingly enough the car parks are free.  We ate in some fantastic places (I was determined being on holiday I was not going to be cooking!).  The Fullerton Arms in Ballintoy serves great food at great prices, we visited here on both occasions and I have to say looked after our big group of girls and us as a family impeccably.

What are your holiday gems? Leave a comment below

Thanks for reading 

xx

PS: I did mention the thunder and lightening storm didn't I.  I have never in my life sat through such a storm.  I was determined to get a picture, I literally sat with my phone pressing the button, and out of 439 pictures I got 1!!








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