November, 2008 - Northern Ireland

Mary traveled to Northern Ireland a number of times.  In November, 2008 she decided to add a couple of days to her trip and took a tour out of Belfast.  The first stop on the tour was the town of Carrickfergus where she saw the castle... 

and marina.

Next stop was the Bushmill Distillery where they have been making Irish Whiskey for over 400 years.  She bought a few mini-bottles for her dad.

The Irish Coastline was lush, green, rugged and spectacular.  We will need to go back.

There was a stop at the Carrick-a-Rede, a rope bridge, originally built by fishermen, to a small island very close to shore.  Many tourists were walking across it to the island.  Mary doesn't like heights so she passed on this.

Next stop was the Giant's Causeway, an area of about 40,000 hexagonal-shaped, basalt columns that were caused by a volcanic fissure eruption over 60,000 years ago.  It was fascinating.

There were awesome views of ruins of Dunluce Castle overlooking the sea.  Unfortunately the tour didn't stop at the castle.