Friday 3rd June

Today we went to the Glens of Antrim, Glen Arif being known as 'The Queen of the Glens of Antrim', so we set out early as we had booked a place on a coastal walk known as 'The Gobbins' later on in the day. As we rode in the car to the Visitors Centre for Glen Arif, I actually saw TWO red squirrels at feeding stations along the avenue we came along which was promising, as this area is known for its high red squirrel population.  We set out on the 'Waterfall Walk' which was quite nice, although a little steep even going down, but it did take us pretty much to the bottom of the glen and we were rewarded with good views of a couple of waterfalls before we made our way back up. I have to admit, I do try not to have expectations but after the glens on the Isle of Man, I was expecting something similar but Glen Arif is much smaller. It's nice, but I couldn't help but compare them! I was very disappointed with the route back up to the car park though, it offered no additional or repeat views of the glen. Don't get me wrong, I like walking through a pretty forest as much as the next person but it became quite monotonous for me and the increasing steepness of the climb back up didn't make it any better - some distracting views would have been nice. Sadly, we didn't see any more red squirrels either.  Back at the car park we took a look in the shop and bought postcards of the Giant's Causeway which were actually much better then the ones in the shop AT the Causeway (!), and we had lunch here before heading off to The Gobbins on Islandmagee.

We had initially heard of The Gobbins on BBC Breakfast, it's a Victorian cliff walk which had recently been restored, and it looked quite fun so we thought we'd check it out.  Turns out that it had only been open since August last year, and was closed after all the repetitive storms which we had at the beginning of 2016. We were told that the original path to the beginning of The Gobbins had been destroyed by storm Frank, particularly by the waves crashing against the slope.  Apparently the whole slope continuously changed shape for about 2 months during these storms, but they soon installed a new path and opened up again.  There was still a bit of storm damage on our route which meant that we were unable to do the last few metres of it, so when we arrived we were each given a £2.50 voucher to spend in the shop and cafe as compensation.

Once we had 'checked in', we met our tour guide Dawn and were taken into a room with 12 others and shown a safety video which I have to say was really quite funny and the best safety video I have ever seen!  We were given hard hats, got into a mini bus and were taken to the beginning of the walk.  Our guide was very knowledgeable and stopped off at various points telling us facts about the trail, what it was like then it was first created etc.  We walked down the long slope to the coast and donned our hats before starting the cliff walk proper.  Steps had been cut into the rock and railings were there of course - some of the original railings were still there and had been kept in for us to see.  We could take as many photos as we liked as we were given plenty of opportunities, and we were constantly being told to look up at the cliffs.  You do tend to look down at where you're stepping and forget to do that!

The rocks were craggy and stuck out at all angles so the hats were essential.  There were a number of bridges along the way including a very well known cylindrical tunnel like bridge, and we were reminded that the original bridges would have had planks of wood used to walk on, which would have been continuously wet and increasingly slimy and slippy as time went on.  The route was quite up and down, but it was definitely worth it because of the views of the sea and the cliffs.  Finally we reached the end (well, temporarily the end for us due to storm damage), at which point we were on a covered bridge looking at a cliff which was covered in birds!  Yes, the roof was there to prevent us being pooped and swooped on, but otherwise, we had a great view of the birds on the cliffs and of those bobbing on the water.  There were Fulmars, Kittiwakes and Razorbills, all nesting on the cliff and feeding in the water.  We made our way back to the beginning of the trail, again with plenty of time to take more photos if we wanted to, including a short visit to the mouth of a cave.  We later learned that the man who created this crazy cliff walk was also involved with the Glens of Antrim!

After a very physical day we were glad to get back to our cottage.