5 cool sights in Northern Ireland

Our journey continues and I want to show you 5 cool sights along our route in Northern Ireland. We deliberately chose only

the best sights. There's so much to discover here, but that would be too much for a blog post. We only took two days for this tour, as everything is very close together. Since we're traveling with two kids, we also made sure that there weren't too many intense impressions per day. The drive itself was a real highlight, which the kids didn't really notice much as they were mostly sleeping. But here you can really see so many great surroundings and landscapes, past lakes and through valleys, along coastal routes right by the sea, and absolutely exciting viewpoints.

As we've allocated a full two weeks for this route, it remains relaxing, and the ample time ensures we can have a lot of fun along the way. In total, we covered approximately 1500 km, as we deviated from the route repeatedly.

Mourne Coastal Route

From Newry we head towards Newcastle. The Mourne Coastal Route is the first of my 5 cool sights in Northern Ireland. The route itself runs from Newry via Warrenpoint, Kilkeel to Newcastle and then on to Belfast and heading north. Since we've already driven part of the route in the south, we're including another highlight. We are driving through the Mourne Mountains and enjoy the great area of mountains and valleys. At the Spelga Reservoir let's pause for a moment and take a quick photo break. We want to go to Silent Valley, but it is currently closed due to bad weather.

We continue on a scenic route to the Mourne Coastal Route. The area here is breathtakingly beautiful. We drive through Newcastle and then head towards the motorway. Since our destination today is the Causeway area, we bypass Belfast and arrive in Cushendun Village, a picturesque village right on the sea.

I can recommend Mary McBride's Bar here. They have delicious food and it's probably one of the few restaurants in the village. The beach there invites you for a walk, so we stretch our legs a bit and then pet some sheep =)

Giant's Causeway

From Cushendun, we continue along the Causeway Coastal Route to the Giant's Causeway via Torr Head. We'll check into our hotel there, where we'll be staying for two days. Since we're up early, we take a morning walk down to the Giant's Causeway. It takes about 30 minutes from the Visitor Centre. As it's only 8 AM and everything else doesn't open until 9 AM, we're the only ones down there. This is, of course, incredibly awesome, and we take numerous photos and enjoy the sunrise.

Giant's Causeway is a rock formation consisting of 40,000 basalt columns. I could write two pages of facts about its formation and the legend behind it now, but you can look that up anywhere. Instead, I really want to give you the tip to go there early in the morning. Because when the Visitor Center is open, it looks more like this 🙂

I can then give you the Visitor Center for a delicious breakfast. If you don't visit the center, you won't have to pay admission for Giant's Causeway either.

The Dark Hedges

A wonderful natural spectacle is The Dark Hedges. Along Bregagh Road stand 150 beech trees that have grown together over the road, creating a natural tunnel. Since The Dark Hedges is one of the filming locations for Game of Thrones, the road has become quite popular. It looks even more beautiful in the summer, but it was truly worth seeing even in February.

You can park there directly at the hotel. It costs nothing and you only walk a few minutes to the street.

Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge

Since The Dark Hedges was only a quick stop and everything is located very close to each other up here, we're now heading to the rope bridge. This rope bridge is definitely one of the 5 cool sights in Northern Ireland. We'll stop at the Visitor Centre and grab some lunch there first. Once we're well-fed, we'll head towards the rope bridge. The journey there alone is worth the tour. Along the cliffs, but of course secured, you'll be rewarded with a magnificent view.

The rope bridge now requires a good head for heights, as the bridge hangs about 30 meters above the sea and is 20 meters long. Since there's a fair amount of wind here, you can imagine it sways a bit. We make it to the other side, kids and all, and then find ourselves on a tiny little island with just one small hut. A fisherman's hut, which, like almost everything else, is closed at this time of year. Nevertheless, there are a thousand opportunities for great photos, and we feel like we take advantage of all of them 🙂

We leisurely walk back across the bridge to the mainland (the larger island, so to speak). There we stop at some viewpoints again and enjoy the view. We discover a rainbow, which are actually quite common here in Northern Ireland. But this also means we have to head to the car now, as the rain won't be far behind.

We'll then drive to Bushmills and eat there at the The Bushmills Inn Restaurant for dinner. They are very child-friendly there and the food tastes top-notch. Of course, you can also drink and taste all variations of Bushmills Whiskey there. But more on that later...

Old Bushmills Distillery

What would a visit to Bushmills be without a tour of the Old Bushmills Distillery, the whiskey distillery. Bushmills was licensed in 1608, making it the oldest distillery in the world to sell whiskey under a license. I bought a ticket for a guided tour and let myself be initiated into the arts of whiskey distilling. It's quite special here because, unlike others, Bushmills doesn't just ferment different varieties twice, but three times. This adds certain aromas that make the whiskey taste particularly special.

Speaking of taste, after the 50-minute tour, there's a delicious tasting. I still have to drive, so I'm enjoying a little sip of a 12-year-old classic. Yum yum. Our journey now continues to Ireland, so I'll end this post here and show you some great snapshots right away.

Conclusion

Our stay in Northern Ireland was sensational. There is so much to see here, and this time it was incredibly difficult for me to choose these 5 cool sights in Northern Ireland. I was already on Island and also Hawaii, but Northern Ireland is in no way inferior in terms of landscape. Since it's only a two-hour flight from Germany or Switzerland, you should definitely put this beautiful country on your bucket list.

And now I wish you lots of fun with the photos!