Sunday – 6 days of being in Ireland, and we’re settling into a routine. Time for Mass. We get up and head across the street to the church and attend the 10am service. It was quick too, less than an hour. We were rather surprised. I may post more about the specific church later.
Dunluce Castle
After Mass we headed out towards Dunluce Castle. We took our time getting there but when we arrived, we were very happy this was our destination. Dunluce Castle is a dramatic ruin, and while it isn’t one of the largest castles, or one of the oldest, there’s a lot of it intact and the setting on the coast is highly impressive.
This was the one thing I wanted to do on my whirlwind trip three years ago, but simply wasn’t able to make it happen.
Audio treasure hunts for the kids
Audio guides are available and part of the admission, and while I would have very much enjoyed to listen to the historical tour, I monitored August, Déla and Ciárán as they partook of the youth’s treasure hunt audio tour and Laura spent her time chasing after Xavier making sure he didn’t clamber up onto an area he wasn’t supposed to (or subsequently tumble down into an inaccessible area – or worse).
If you make it to the area, do make a point to stop for an hour or so at Dunluce Castle. Well worth it.
A couple of logistical stops and we were are the Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge. We were paying attention to the weather, and there was not only a break in the rain for a steady amount of time, but also some sun. Actual sun breaks, which were an uncommon occurrence so far on our trip. We pay our fare and head down to the rope bridge.
carrick-a-rede
Only thing is, we didn’t realize just how far down and away the rope bridge was. It’s a bit of a hike to get to it. Not tough, but unexpected. Just as we are arriving at the rope bridge itself, we get the word that it is closed due to high winds.
This is certainly a danger with Carrick-A-Rede, and why we were rather anxious to get to it when it wasn’t raining. But we’ll be back, we have a long chunk of time before we leave back home.
It may not seem like much, but that was our day. We get home, I make dinner, put the kids to bed, I get a little writing done, check email, and it’s time for me to head off to bed. I have a big day tomorrow, but that’s another blog post.