The guest rooms last night were very nice and above a pub that the locals seemed to be really enjoying! Breakfast was in a cafe around the corner and very strict as to what was on the menu! The forecast was dry but cold and windy for our walk to Ballycastle.
Today was a day in the “wilderness” so mainly photos of scenery (where the camera does justice anyway). Cushendall (from the Irish Cois Abhann Dalla, meaning ‘foot of the River Dall’), was formerly known as Newtownglens. In 1973, it was the second village in Northern Ireland to be designated as a Conservation Area. Since 1990, Cushendall has hosted the Heart Of The Glens festival every August. As we left Cushendall it was straight into a lengthy and steep hill with great views behind us as we wound our way upwards. The third picture is of a path that google maps tried to send us on – as we didn’t fancy all kinds of stings and scratches we had to detour a little bit. Every up has as down and we crossed the river Glendun River before heading back up the next hill.
As we continued up to the top of the hill we passed the remains of Carra Castle from the 14th century. The castle was once occupied by Irish king Shane O’Neill, and Sorley Boy McDonnell was held as a prisoner here in 1565. In 1567, two years after being defeated by O’Neill, the McDonnells entertained him in Castle Carra during two days of hunting and feasting. However, on the third day, 2 June, during a quarrel, they stabbed O’Neill to death to avenge their earlier defeat and sent his head to the English representatives of Queen Elizabeth I in Dublin Castle.
We then walked on a flattish road for a while, some of the views were really beautiful, and the remoteness of the road also meant very few vehicles passing us. We had some good views of Scotland across the sea. Plenty of lambs in every field including some that could not be very old – didn’t realise lambing season carried on so late. We had some nice views of Torr Head as well (last photo). The wind was brisk at this stage and pretty biting – a local in Cushendall said we would have the wind behind us for this walk – true but only if we walked backwards!.
The final section of the road across the hills was very empty aka wild and rugged, beautiful to look at but doesn’t really translate well into phone photos. The first picture shows a decommissioned Cold War Listening Station. We finally joined the A2 for the last few kilometres into Ballycastle – it wasn’t too busy thankfully – and we passed the ruins of Bonmargy Friary. It is a late Franciscan foundation established in 1485 by Rory MacQuillan. It is said that the first battle between the warring McDonnell and McQuillan clans was fought on nearby land. The hills meant that today was a tough but beautifully scenic walk. Tomorrow we head for Bushmills.
