Rathlin Island

From the quiet coastal town of Balleycastle, be sure to take a ferry to Rathlin Island, the northernmost point in Northern Ireland. Rathlin is only home to about 150 people, but is a special conservation area and home to Northern Ireland’s largest seabird colony—including guillemots and puffins. The observation area at the West Light Seabird Centre offers dramatic coastal views and a cacophony of bird sound. 

Buses navigate the small island, but it is also hikable or bikable; near the island’s port you can lay in tall grasses overlooking flats where seals sun themselves. On the ferry back from the island dolphins can be seen playfully chasing the ship back toward Ballycastle, which is home to a number of bed and breakfasts—including the simple but well-kept “Ard Na Mara” on Atlantic Avenue.

The Dark Hedges

Waking from Ballycastle for a new day’s journey, it is only a short detour inland to visit “The Dark Hedges,” an avenue of centuries-old beech trees that achieved international fame as a filming location for the TV show Game of Thrones.

Rejoining the Coastal Causeway route, those who do not fear heights should visit the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge near Balintoy, a site maintained by the UK’s National Trust. A twenty-meter suspension bridge connects the tiny island of Carrikarede with the mainland; visitors who approach the bridge and turn back can do so without shame—but those are successful at crossing are afforded beautiful views of both Rathlin Island and limestone cliffs. 

Giant’s Causeway

Continue your day’s journey with a visit to the Giant’s Causeway, a UNESCO world heritage site and a geologic wonder—tens of thousands interlocking, polygonal basalt columns forged by volcanic activity some 50 million years ago. Visitors are allowed to wander over the columns, which are arranged in tiered, pipe-organ-like patterns; they have inspired myths, poetry and art.

Portstewart

A good place to end a day of geologic exploration is found in the seaside resort town of Portstewart, which offers views of prolonged, northern-latitude sunsets in late summer.

The town is also one of unexpected culinary delights. Locals particularly praise Harry’s Shack in Portstewart. The chef there prepares special meals with locally-grown vegetables, though seafood is their speciality. 

And Portstewart’s Strandeen Bed and Breakfast is also lucky to have a nutritionist as their proprietor; breakfasts included not only porridge with flax seeds and blueberries but delicious avocado toast with watercress.

From Portstewart, it is only an hour’s drive to the city of Derry/Londonderry, a flashpoint of political turmoil through the years between the “unionists”—the mostly protestant population who want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom—and the mostly Catholic population of “republicans” who don’t. But “The Troubles,” the violent period of conflict between the Irish Republican Army and unionists between 1968 and 1998 is now history, and there are signs everywhere of peaceful coexistence. The Playhouse Theatre, a community arts center, has staged several productions that have promoted dialogue between the two communities. The new pedestrian Peace Bridge, over the River Foyle, has improved relations between what had traditionally been divided communities—and the use of that bridge has been helped by the recent opening of the Walled City Brewery, a microbrewery and restaurant, on the largely republican side of the Foyle that offers views back toward the city center.

Derry’s resurgence as a tourist destination is reinforced by the recent opening of the luxury Bishops Gate Hotel, whose lobby is worth peeking into just to see the whimsical Victorian-style portraits of dogs in formal wear. Derry’s city center is the last completely walled city in Ireland—the work of 17th century Scottish and English settlers—and it has an intimate, old-world feel. 

As you wend your way back from Derry toward the Republic of Ireland, there are areas that are so rural that you might not encounter another human soul (or car) for long periods—though you might stumble upon occasional signs of ancient life, like the Beaghmore Stone Circles near Cooktown, which are thought to be more than three millennia old, and whose meaning is still largely a mystery to archaeologists and anthropologists.