Northern Ireland: The Causeway Coast & GOT Shooting Locations

Introduction:

I was at Leicester Square, London and guess where I was coming from??
From London Square, Leicester. So funny!

This was the first day and first time in the city where royalty lives. From morning to late evening, I was hopping one place to another. Big Ben to Tower Bridge. London Eye to Westminster Abbey. Borough Market to Spitalfields Market. The Royal Mews to The Shard. Finally at Prime Meridian, Greenwich (The world clock starts here) before the final London Night Bus tour. In one day, I used all means of transport in London- Bus, Train, Tube, Uber Boat & even cable car and had some delicious food with tea. That's the profuse delivery to one day London tour. From 10 AM to 10 PM — history, geography, polity, economy, & much more along with a lot of walking — walking ~12–15 KM. Isn’t it too much for one day?

Background:

Two of my close friends are put up in the UK. I was planning to visit there and had applied for a visa. Well, it took almost 2 months to get it in hand. Meanwhile, I already had a planned business trip to the EU. Now it became difficult for me to plan my vacation.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way. After some planning, I booked tickets from the EU to the UK for 10 days including 2 weekends. Happily, there were 2 days of holiday in between.
I stayed initial 5 days in Leicester with my friend and worked for 3 days. We did a tour of the Cotswolds including Shakesphere’s village and enjoyed some desi food (especially when you came from Europe) in Leicester. I took the early morning train to London and you already read how I spend my day in the British capital.

Day 0: Edinburgh

After a long day yesterday, I had a very early morning train from King’s Cross to Edinburgh. We catch the train in cut-to-cut time. The journey was scenic to Edinburgh. I will recommend taking the train instead of flying. The journey takes 4 hours.

Finally, we were in the capital of Scotland. We checked in to CoDE Pod hostel, dropped off our luggage, and went for English breakfast in a nearby cafe. One of us (we were 3) had to work so stayed at the hostel and two of us started exploring the city.

We started to walk around the beautiful city doing some window shopping. I had my introduction with Harris Tweed (Special wool from Harris Island sheep only) suites, expensive but worth it.

I was fascinated by Scottish culture(see pic) and learned about tartan. We hiked to Arthur’s seat (an old volcanic mountain), took a guided walking tour, visited the castle, and heard a lot of weird stories about the city. Scotland is the home of Scotch whisky, not to surprise they had Pubs & Bars in the 15th century or even before. It’s worth mentioning Scotland is also home to Adam Smith(Father of Modern Economics). We had our flight at 10 PM from Edinburgh to Belfast where our actual trip was getting started. We headed to the airport on time and pass the security check.

Here was the surprisee!!! Our flight got delayed for 1 hr, no no 1.5 hrs, sorry 2 hrs, ohhh it’s 2,5 hrs and finally 3 hrs. I took quite a few naps at the airport and on the flight.

Day 1: Belfast and more

The noise made me up, alas! We landed at Belfast International Airport. Quickly we took a cab and reached Airbnb and slept. I woke up, got ready, booked a cab again, went to Belfast City Airport, and took my rental car. I came back, and by the time all were ready, we did the checkout and started the drive.
^| These incidents were as fast as I have written.

Our first destination was Carrickfergus Castle but we were running short of time and missed this waypoint and directly headed to Gobbins cliff walk. They are so punctual, kindly be on time. This cliff walk is different from others as you will be walking nearshore cliff, unlike offshore cliff in most cases. You can either keep your hiking/trekking shoes with you or can rent them at a minimal cost. We all really enjoyed the walk, this was the first ever experience for us. We were spectacled a kayaking boat race on the way along with the panoramic view of the Irish Sea.

The next point of interest for us was Slemish Mountain. We witnessed the sheep were grazing. Sheep are so busy always that they never look up. The view was incredible. We don’t want to miss any glimpse of the scenic routes so decided to drive through the coastal roadways. BTW, the route is known as the Causeway Coastal Route.

We drive through The Glens of Antrim took a break for lunch and then arrived at Cushendun Caves. The Cushendun Caves are one of GOT(Game of Thrones) shooting locations. We also captured some snapshots. It started drizzling, we ran to the car and move further to Torr Head and then to our second most important spot Carrick-A-Rede. It was already evening, and we all were exhausted so gave thought and pronounced to visit the location the next morning.

We checked in to Sheep Island View Hostel just a km away from the site. The hostel was so clean and we had our separate room with an attached bath. They have a huge common kitchen also. For dinner, we walked to a nearby restaurant in a hotel “The Fullerton Arms”. To our surprise, it was GOT theme restaurant with The Iron Throne in it. The GOT team stayed in this hotel while they were shooting. Post dinner we took some shots with the GOT theme & throne and back to the hostel.

Day 2: Carrick-A-Rede & Giant’s Causeway

We started the day by visiting Carrick-A-Rede. The moving rope bridge was fun, which adjoins the tiny Island. Go early to avoid queue time. We had some breakfast at the national trust restaurant just before the site. Then, we started with The Dark Hedges. This is again a GOT location. We were amazed by the view of the atmospheric tunnel. This was picture-perfect. It was already started getting crowded. You need to park your car a few meters away and walk.

Our most important spot for the trip was a UNESCO world heritage site, a national nature reserve, and a natural wonder — The Giant’s Causeway. And here we were! The Giant Causeway is really a natural wonder made by volcanic fissure eruption and has hexagonal stone columns. It’s quite hard to believe that it’s natural. We spent some time on a good sunny day and budge to the next destination. We visited Benone Beach followed by Mussenden Temple. Quite a relaxing place. Worth spending a couple of hours on. The next planned stop for us was Magiligan Point however due to a detour we skipped that. Instead, we opted for Gortmore Viewpoint.

We sign in to Legenderry B&B at Londonderry. The place was so pretty yet cozy. We opted for an Italian place for dinner and lazing around the city.

Day 3: Londonderry & Portrush Whiterocks Beach

The city was so quiet. We can clearly see the impact of its black history. Murals were painted across the walls of the whole city. We walk around the walled city of Derry.
We had a return flight from Belfast in the late evening. We wanted to cover some of the spots we missed on the way in the last two days. We visited Portrush Whiterocks Beach & Dunluce Castle while driving to Belfast. We quickly visited the Titanic Belfast Museum in the city. We had some spicy food at Airport in a Mexican restaurant before boarding the flight.

We reached home at late night in London. My friend had already arranged the ingredients required for the dinner, which I was going to prepare. He is a great foodie, I can bet about his diverse knowledge, whether Indian subcontinent or world cuisines. Well, I started preparing everyone’s favorite “Dum Biryani”. Finally, after spending 2 hrs., not the food but the emotion was ready. Everyone was super hungry and sleepy but it was worth waiting for. We had a midnight dinner.

If it's Biryani at the End, it’s all well Ended 😛.

The next morning, I returned back to work.

Outline:

Causeway Coast is one out of 3 major road trips in the UK. The North Coast 500 and Cornwall are the other two. Northern Ireland is a gem for GOT fans. Though it’s been shot in many countries, some of them are also in Croatia and Iceland. All three places have dedicated GOT tour packages, especially for series lovers. No doubt why this series is the world’s most famous one.

In Northern Ireland, there is a lot of services or firm to take care of old people. Often people love to stay there post-retirement or if they are dependent on someone for their livelihood.

Here is the itinerary we planned. We missed seeing a few places. Maybe next time 🙂
Day 0: London → Edinburgh → Belfast
Day 1: Belfast City → Carrickfergus Castle → Gobbins Cliff Walk → Slemish Mountain → Glenarm Castle → The Glens of Antrium → Cushendun Caves → Torr Head
Day 2: Carrick-A-Rede → The Dark Hedges → Giant’s Causeway → Mussenden Temple → Benone Beach → Magilligan Point
Day 3: Londonderry → Portrush Whiterocks Beach → Dunluce Castle → Titanic Belfast → London

VISA: UK Visa or Ireland tourist Visa(Indians can visit under the British-Irish treaty)

Currency: GBP (pound sterling). Cards are widely accepted.

When: Summer is a good time. Prefer Spring or Fall to avoid crowds.

How: Fly to Belfast. If tickets are costly try booking via any city in Great Britain.

Info: United Kingdom(UK) consists of England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland. Great Britain consists of England, Scotland & Wales. All are having UK Passports.