So a couple of weeks ago my boyfriend and I took our first trip of the year to the North Coast of Ireland or as my boyfriend refers to it as ‘Game of Thrones territory.’ Not having watched the program or having any wish to do so I just nodded in response to him telling me about the different filming locations as we made our way up the coast.
I’d highly recommend taking the scenic route or the ‘Coast Road’ as we refer to it as instead of the motorway to Portrush or Port Stewart. The advantage of taking the coast road is that you will experience some of the most stunning scenery anywhere on the island of Ireland. From dramatic cliff faces of the Glens of Antrim to beautiful sea scapes of the various coastal villages; driving the coast road is really worth the two to three hour trip for the scenery alone.
Now of course when it comes to me I’m always thinking when we’re going for a drive, ‘Where can we go for food?’. You’re spoilt for choice for places to eat all the way up the coast road from Ballygally Castle to the Londonderry Arms and countless fish and chip shops or cafes there really is no shortage of places to eat. On this particular trip we stopped at the coastal fishing village of Carnlough. Carnlough is famous for having an old, stone arch which you drive under as you pass through the town (NEED INFO ON THIS). We made our own sandwiches and sat and ate them in the car like the old couple we are. We took a walk around Carnlough harbour after for some photographs for an up and coming blog post so stay tuned
Top Tip: When driving through Carnlough sometimes this arch is a one way drive as locals think that parking either side of the entrance of the arch is a good idea and therefore making it impassable to two-way traffic!
After Carnlough the scenery only gets better as we made our way up to the historic villages of Cushendun and Cushendall. We drove to Cushendall to take the Torr Head road to get to Bushmills. I’d never been on the Torr Head road before so this was a bit of an adventure for me! We took in the beautiful and rugged scenery and wondered how anyone could live there being so far from any town or village!
Top Tip: The Torr Head road is passable for cars only as it is very narrow and mini-buses and coaches won’t be able to get up the steep and winding road.
We stopped twice; once at a small church where much to the bemusement of the local sheep we took photo’s for the blog and secondly at an old abandoned telegraph or radar station. After this the weather started to turn so we decided to head to on to Bushmills and enjoy a pint of Guinness in front of the lovely roaring fire…
Stay tuned until next time when I’ll have more photo’s of our adventures in ‘Game of Thrones’ territory!