Belfast and Game of Thrones

After five straight days of stops in Scotland, today we found ourselves in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Belfast sits on the Antrim Coast and serves as Northern Ireland’s capital. It was the birthplace of the Titanic and its surroundings were used as shooting locations for Game of Thrones which had us really excited to go see.

When deciding what to do in Belfast we knew we wanted to go see Giant’s Causeway and visit some of the locations where Game of Thrones was shot at. We found the perfect tour on Viator named Private Giants Causeway & Coastal Tour from Belfast in Luxury Mercedes. Our tour guide Paul picked us right after we walked off the ship and we were on our way.

Before disembarking from the ship, we were warned not to wear certain colors or talk politics with anyone we ran into in town. Within 30 seconds of meeting Paul he was sharing his disdain for England in typical Irish form. He caught all of us a little off-guard, but we all settled in and he toned it down as the day progressed. While he cursed like a sailor and had no problem sharing his political views, Paul was incredibly entertaining with his lively stories and his history and knowledge of the area was unmatched.

Our first stop for the day was to The Dark Hedges where the trees date back to 1775. They were placed there to create an imposing look into the Gracehill House Estate. For all those Game of Thrones fans this is where they filmed ‘The King’s Road’. Along the way to our next stop we passed through a town that has a door carved from a dark hedge tree and was used in Game of Thrones. Fun fact there are 10 doors located throughout Northern Ireland. Some folks do a tour just to find the all the doors. Our guide said it takes about two days to travel around to all of them.

Next up, the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. Suspended almost 100 feet above the Atlantic Ocean, the rope bridge was built in 1755 and served as a way for salmon fishermen to get across the chasm to fish the rocky island of Carrick-a-Rede. The name, from the Gaelic ‘Carraig-a-Rade’, means ‘The Rock in the Road’, an obstacle for the migrating salmon as they search for the river in which they were born. Today the bridge has become safer from the single handrail and wood slate every few steps to a two-rail wooden slate every step. If it gets too windy, they do shut it down for safety. Definitely not for the faint of heart of for those scared of heights.

We made a quick stop at Ballintoy Harbour which is known as Iron Islands and home to the Pykes in Game of Thrones.

On to the main attraction on the Antrim Coast, Giants Causeway. The Causeway formed just under 60 million years ago, and at that time Ireland was still attached to North America. Europe was starting to rip away from North America, and as it did so it created huge rifts in the earth’s surface. Those rifts produced cracks, and up through those cracks came lots of molten rock and lava. Much later, erosion then caused rivers to form in the basalt. Then more lava came, which flowed through the river valleys. In this river valley, the Giant’s Causeway was formed.

After a fish and chips lunch at The Causeway Hotel we headed to Bushmill’s Distillery to sample some Irish Whiskey. Whoa! None of us were ready for that.

Our last stop was the 15th century medieval Dunluce Castle. It has been preserved to show the history of the 700-year-old castle. The views off the cliff into the water are spectacular.