Day 54 - Belfast: Giants Causeway and so much more

Northern Ireland is known for many, many things, aside from the Troubles. There’s The Giants Causeway, Ulster (the other name depending on your beliefs), that they are part of the United Kingdom, Derry Girls!!!, Game of Thrones (see Martha's blog), and of course the building of the Titanic. We will cover the Titanic tomorrow as that is when we are touring the museum.

Today we left Belfast for the Coast Road tour. First off, let me say that our tour guide Lorraine was awesome! She knows her stuff and not just this tour, but she is a traveler and a sports fan. We covered a wide variety of subjects today.

We learned about the Plantation of Ulster a province of Ireland – by people from Great Britain during the reign of King James I (who we remember as the son of Mary Queen of Scots). Most of the settlers (or planters) came from southern Scotland and northern England; their culture differed from that of the native Irish. Small privately funded plantations by wealthy landowners began in 1606, while the official plantation began in 1609.

We learned about Penal Laws, laws passed against Roman Catholics in Britain and Ireland after the Reformation that penalized the practice of the Roman Catholic religion and imposed civil disabilities on Catholics.

Unionist remain loyal to Great Britain and Nationalists want a united Ireland.

Scotland is 12 miles away via the sea and back in the olden days, was easier to access than Ireland. The water was a known quantity, while getting around a rural, overgrown Ireland, was very difficult.

These are scenes on the way to our first stop.

We went to the McDonald Castle (I think that’s the name😂). This is a working castle, meaning the family still lives there. Also, there was a moat (sort of) in front of this entrance.

Three caves: One for Annie, the bootlegger, one for the Hedge Schools (Hedge schools (Irish names include scoil chois claí, scoil ghairid and scoil scairte) were small informal secret and illegal schools, particularly in 18th- and 19th-century Ireland, designed to secretly provide the rudiments of primary education to children of 'non-conforming' faiths (Catholic and Presbyterian)), and one for the blacksmith.

Giants Causeway - The Giant's Causeway has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986. It consists of about 40,000 evenly shaped basalt columns, the age of which is about 60 million years. About half of the columns have a hexagonal cross-section, but there are also those with four, five, seven or eight corners. The largest of the stone columns have a height of twelve meters. The rock layer is up to 25 m thick. The Giant's Causeway runs for about five kilometers along the cliffs and ends in the sea, from which – according to the old legend of Fionn mac Cumhaill – it reappears on the Scottish coast as Fingal's Cave. Geologists attribute the formation of the basalt dam to the cooling of hot lava. Formations of vertical basalt columns can occur with very slow and uniform cooling of lava. The column structure is formed from stress cracks slowly running into the material. These are caused by the cooling and shrinkage of the material and spread perpendicular to the cooling surface.

Maggie: This is a cool but kind of intimidating site. It is all rocks. One misstep and you are going to hurt yourself! Thankfully, we had steady footing today.

We saw Dunluce Castle from a distance - one of the most romantic settings in Ireland!

Then we were on the road to Carrick a Rede. This is a place I had never heard of before this morning. Lorraine said to book tickets for the afternoon, and I did. It was so worth it. The Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge is a rope bridge near Ballintoy in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The bridge links the mainland to the tiny island of Carrickarede meaning 'rock of the casting. It spans 66 ft and is 98 ft above the rocks below.

What an amazing day. Great times, family, and an amazing tour guide.