Leg 34, A very blustery 22k walk along the very edge of the country from Portstewart to The Giants Causeway. I am told that my constant companion on this walk was called “Abigal” the mid-Atlantic tropical storm now almost spent but shaking her withered fist at Ireland one last time before expiring. Logistical and transport problems around arrangements for tomorrow’s walk mean that it made sense to add a further 10k to today’s walk, so 33k actually covered.
I took photos of the scenery as I walked the coastal path but am disinclined to post them, partly because real photographers have published better images than I could ever capture but mostly because photos do not do justice to this location. The walk along this island’s north coast ought to be on every sentient being’s bucket list – and it should be WALKED it can’t be appreciated from inside a car. Indeed the inclination to lean into car windows and snap “get out of this box, put your camera away and feel the wind on your face” was very strong, but a night in a police cell would be a poor end to a good day’s walking.
Many miles of this walk are along wide sandy beaches, I have attached an image of the most crowded of these beaches, highlighting the most densely packed area! Other parts of the route are are made up of carefully constructed tracks cut through the dense foliage and bracken that clings to the coast’s limestone rock, with smile-making hobbit-built walkways bridging the occasional crevasse where the sea has gnawed a narrow fissure out of the rock. Beyond the Disney-sinister ruins of Dunluce Castle the route takes to the road but even here anyone choosing to peek over the parapet wall can watch the sea surge twist and contort itself around the sea-stacks, caves and cliffs below.
The stretch from Portballintrae to the Giant’s Causeway can be walked either on the beach or along the footpath beside the world’s oldest hydro-electric railway line. As you can see from the photo the tracks of this railway are rusty but not from un-use (the line still runs a seasonal shuttle service from Bushmills to the Causeway) but because even rust forms faster than this train moves. I have used this service in the past and there is something uniquely awkward about waving goodbye to a loved one as they set off on this train and then periodically overtaking them as you stroll along the trackside path.
My additional 10k hike today covered the route long the flank of Knocklayd mountain from Breen Wood and through Ballycastle forest – though taken out of sequence walking this section now will shorten my last leg on Saturday, allowing me to get home before dark. The non-forest section is along the road but it does provide views along Glenshesk one of the undeservedly less well known Glens of Antrim. In addition, walking this section today meant that I had Abigal at my back pushing me up the hill.
Comments are closed.