Our B&B was “interesting” – as many rooms as possible crammed into the house and we were in “bijou” spaces up on the third and fourth floors. Today was Helena’s second, and last day with us as we walked to Carnlough.
We started out from Larne by passing the Chaine Memorial Tower – a memorial to James Chaine, MP for Antrim (died 1885), who developed Larne’s short sea route to Scotland as well as establishing the town as a transatlantic port. Boston’s long standing Scots-Irish roots can be traced to Larne – the town is documented as being the first in county Antrim to be taken by United Irishmen during the ill-fated rebellion of 1798. The Protestant rebels from this area (almost entirely Presbyterian) filled Larne and engaged the government forces around 2am on the morning of 7 June. We watched the ferry from Stranraer arrive and then headed out along the coast road, enjoying the dry weather and a new beach around every turn.
We carried on the road into Ballygally, keeping close to the coast the whole way. There were multitudes of seabirds (and ducks) populating the beaches – the oystercatchers were by far the noisiest. Ballygally Castle overlooks the sea at the head of Ballygally Bay. Now run as a hotel, it is the only 17th century building still used as a residence in Northern Ireland, and is reputed to be one of the most haunted places in all of Ulster.
The coast road continued to impress with the addition of some impressive cliffs on the land side as well as the non stop beaches. We got to Glenarm after a few flurries of rain (the put coat on, take coat off, swear, put coat on / off again type) and got ice creams from a little van in the car park – the syrups were of a decidedly fluorescent hue. There has been a castle at Glenarm since the 13th century, where it resides at the heart of one of Northern Ireland’s oldest estates The present castle was built by Sir Randal MacDonnell, 1st Earl of Antrim, in 1636, and it has remained in the family since its construction. It is currently owned by Randal McDonnell, 10th Earl of Antrim.
Walking around the last headland of the day we has some nice views of Glenarm behind us and Carnlough ahead of us. A relatively short day but I think the exertions of yesterday were still weighing on us as we were definitely quite tired got tea and scones while waiting for checkin time at our hotel. Tomorrow is an even shorter day as we head to Cushendall.
