Tuesday May 12, 2026
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Distance traveled: 168 km
Cumulative distance: 1884 km
Weather today: 9.5 - 14.5 Cool and overcast first thing in the morning. Then sunny, cool and a four club wind for the better part of the morning, then a three club wind in the afternoon. A good rain spell late in the afternoon then apparently rainy in the evening in Belfast.
We had a great sleep because of the great bed at Cul-Erg Bead and Breakast in Portstewart last night, followed by a great breakfast. In fact, I don't remember opting in for breakfast when i made the reservation some months ago but they seemed to think I had it coming to me. (?) Our host gave us some tips for visiting our planned sites along thw way. The first being, go past the Danluce Castle and proceed 50 metres past the second access to the parking lot for the best photo of the castle. Well, that was a great tip and very true, however, he didn't mention parking in the parking lot, pay money to visit the castle and the walking to the great photo spot since there is absolutley no place to park out there. In fact, there was almost no place to park in the parking lot. However, we did manage to squeeze along the egress and abandon the car while we looked around. Pretty cool spot: 500 year old castle obviously built to withstand attacks from, well, whomever was attacking that week.
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| Castle view from beyond. |
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| View from the castle, to contemplate the beauty while waiting on the next attack. |
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| This was some stonemasons shoring up fireplaces in an effort to keep them from collapsing. We had a discussion about the value of using stone vs the wood they have here to add the cross beams but I was told it was very difficult to find stone that didn't have fractures so even though stone would have looked more authentic, wood was the preferred option. |
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| The wind was so strong that Nan had to plant her feet apart for improved stability in an effort to keep from being blown off the grounds. |
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| This is looking down the "garbage chute", a place in the castle with a clear, straight down view in order to drop refuse out of the castle without having to go out or throw it over a wall. You can see the bars at the bottom of the picture: there was a cage around the hole for safety purposes. |
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| The drawbridge has been replaced by a fixed bridge but you can be sure that with the drawbridge up the crossing would have been formidable. BTW, the notion of water in a castle moat was a modern day fiction about castles; water would have been extremely unsanitary in short order as water would have been difficult to access and then it would have been stagnant. Unless the castle was built on a river or island. |
We then stopped at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Giant's Causeway. Numerous people had advised us we should stop there and not that there was any doubt but we had it on our pre-planned itinerary. Fascinating geological volcanic formation of geometrcally shaped cyclinders left from molten lava filling a river bed then having the ice cap sheer it off. We walked about 3+ km and a LOT of elevation change.
Driving down the Irish coast was a hair-raising eperience. The road to Torr was barely one car wide, ironically, with a line down the centre, not that there was enough room on either side of the line for a car. To say nothing of the incredibly steep switchbacks or blind crests or blind corners. We have driven some gnarly roads on this trip and others but nothing ever like this road. At one point we encountered another car coming our direction. We were able to pass each other by pulling in our side-view mirrors. And because we were driving the outside lane, we had the pleasure of looking down 50,000 feet from the edge of the road. Notwithstanding, it was stunningly beautiful but frightening all at the same time.
I lost our Spot Tracker. I know it is ironic that I lost the device that keeps track of our location. It was stupid on my part. When we got to the Belfast hotel we were parked partially under a tree so I set the tracker on the hood of the car so that it would get a clear shot of a satellite and ping the location. Then walked away and left it there. A couple of boys were throwing a football around and I had said 'hi' to them and apologized for driving on their football pitch. When I went back to retrieve the tracker it was gone but there was a note from one of the boys saying they had turned it in to reception at the hotel but there was only three staff on and none had seen the person or tracker.
