Portstewart to Giant's Causeway: E2 Day 30

An attractive coastal section, with seaside towns, a castle ruin and the Giant's Causeway. 

The day started cool, the wind blowing as I left Portstewart. Now the trail followed the coast on generally good gravel paths among tussocks of grass, the sea crashing on black, basalt rocks nearby. Periodically the path dropped into little glens, crossing a small stream on a wooden bridge. Dog walkers and joggers passed. A lady attracted a large number of gulls by scattering bread for them on a stretch of grass behind her house.

An arc of sand backed by a promenade announced the start of Portrush, beyond which there was a small harbour with an orange RNLI rescue craft and many smaller boats. In one of the streets, verses from the bible were prominently displayed warning of the consequences of not having your name down in the book of life. After following the perimeter of the headland admiring the distant views I diverted to the main street and just made Bob & Bert's café as a sudden heavy shower began. The rainfall soon stopped giving plenty of time for me to overdose on sugar with a heavily iced Red Velvet cake.

Looking back at Portrush

Beyond Portrush there was a long sandy beach, popular with dog walkers and a few hardy swimmers. Rick, the hostel owner at Portstewart suggested going beyond where the Ulster Way leaves the beach in order to see a natural arch in the chalk rock which formed the cliffs at that point. However I was stopped by a man who explained they were filming a children's program and could I not continue? So I climbed up the sandy path to the top of the cliffs to continue on the Ulster Way. It was a scenic route. In addition to spotting the filming below me I could see a few natural arches cut in the rock by the action of the sea. Today the sea was in constant movement, white topped waves whipped up by the wind. At the base of the cliffs the sea smashed against rocks, creating a lather of foam, brilliant white in patches of sunlight.

Dunluce Castle.

Dating from 1550, Dunluce castle stood on a promontory into the sea, its ruined walls a monument to a more troubled time, when clans fought each other, or the English, else the Irish attacked the rich occupants. After looking around I continued to Portballintrae, entered via an overgrown path. Like Portrush it was built on a headland with a small harbour.

The Ulster Way briefly followed an old railway, its rusty rails now abandoned. Then after a large stone built house, and a few headlands the cliffs above the Giant's Causeway came into view. The cliffs were now of basalt, formed when lava flows solidify, the tops of each flow was visible as lines in the cliff.  On the cliff top there was a memorial to two airmen who had died here having crashed during a training exercise, complete with poppy wreaths. Earlier I had passed a concrete arrow which was used to direct trainee bomber crews to a practice target.

Looking towards Giant's Causeway

The Giant's Causeway is a UNESCO World Heritage Site which means it attracts lots of visitors. As I approached the Giant's Causeway Visitor Centre I could see eight coaches, and there were more around the corner. After checking into the nearby hostel, named after Finn McCool, the giant responsible for the causeway, I returned to walk down to see the "organ pipes" of basalt that are called the Giant's Causeway. These columns, roughly hexagonal in cross section, were formed as molten lava cooled 60 million years ago. There are columnar basalts elsewhere in the world but these are pretty good. 

Columnar basalt on the Giant's Causeway 

A gpx file of my route today can be found on wikiloc.com or outdooractive.