North Coast

A Pit Day, ie no golf, meant a strong list of tourist stops. From our townhouse Airbnb in Londonderry it was a 50 minute drive to the north coast. Spectacular weather – sunshine, 13C/56F and nary a breeze.

First stop, the Giant’s Causeway. A World Heritage site, movie set and geological marvel it has turned into a tourist magnet. Our tour guide, Emma, was a superb hostess with tons of information and insight. We walked down the hill past the various bays until voila.

The symmetry of the more than 40,000 columns is amazing but tourists kept cluttering up the pictures.

Then, per our normal, we chose to hike along the headland for different picture angles before ascending the cliff via a step stone stairway to reach the top trail.

From the top, the views were amazing.

Back in the car and further along the coast is the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. Built to allow fishermen access to small islands off the coast in search of salmon runs, the bridge has existed for more than 250 years.

Again the tourists kept jumping into the frame.

Climbing back up the hill from the bridge meant more stairs but again, the effort paid off in the views. On a clear day you can see across to Scotland!

To finish the day we stopped at the Bushmills distillery for a tasting of a few of their products. All were deemed quite worthy.

Back to golfing tomorrow as we head north west to our first Round at Ballyliffen.