06-04 Giants Causeway

Anyone who visits Belfast and Northern Ireland will want to drive up the coast road in County Antrim. It is one of the most spectacular views in the world. That is where we were all headed in April 1947.
You go through Ballycastle before hitting the first spectacular site which is the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge joining the mainland with the island of Carrick-a-Rede. The fishermen at that time had to reach the island to lay their nets to catch salmon.
In the photo, Ian is seen on the rope bridge. I was either too cautious or too frightened to cross the bridge, but both Robert and Ian were fearless. It hung 100 feet above the raging sea. The bridge today has netting along the sides and is much safer. The salmon are gone, but the bridge remains a great tourist attraction.
I remember Dad rhyming off a verse driving past Ballycastle: “If Ballyalbert hadn’t been so Ballymena with his Ballymoney, he could have bought himself a Ballycastle for his Ballyhome.” “Bally” in the original Irish meant “town of”.
I asked him in later years why we never stopped in Ballycastle and he said that is where the Catholics go for their holidays. Oops.
Not far past the Rope Bridge is Ballintoy and the famous Giant's Causeway. Another tourist took a photo with mother and Dad together, a special picture I treasure.
The Giant’s Causeway is a World Heritage Site and includes about 40,000 columns that run down into the sea. They are the result of a volcanic eruption approximately 60 million years ago. The enormity of the Causeway is seen in the photo with Ian wearing Uncle Herbert's air force cap.
Some of the columns are huge. Most have six sides, and others had four or five. Standing on a column in the photo, I am as tall as my father. What fun, what memories.
Over the years I have made four visits to Northern Ireland or Ulster and four visits to the Giant’s Causeway.