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CO. ANTRIM - Green glens of Antrim
Take a walk down the road less travelled — the Antrim Coast Road..
Madman’s Window, which looks out over the Irish Sea to Scotland is part of the world famous Antrim Coast Road. No-one quite knows why he went mad, or what his fate was — but the curious rock formation is a gaunt sentinel watching over this spectacular road which snakes from just beyond Larne in Co. Antrim to Portstewart on the Derry border.
Along the way towns like Cushendun, Cushendall and Glenarm huddle underneath the giant cliffs, looking out towards Rathlin Island and beyond to the Mull of
Kintyre. Impossibly picturesque, places like the lovely seaside village of Carnlough might have appeared in Finian’s Rainbow; small pastel-washed houses, neat little shops (all independently owned) view for space with tiny pubs each with a honeycomb of tiny rooms.
Journey along the magnificent engineering feat which is the Antrim coast road, past Garron Point - which curiously enough people used to think was the most northerly point in Ireland — and on to Red Bay. Here during the penal times mass was said in high caves in the hills, or in overturned fishing boats. This route along Ireland’s north eastern seaboard, which within living memory was little more than a rough track bedded with basalt and chalk chips and pitted with potholes, is reckoned today to be one of the most spectacular roads in the world, in the same company as the San Bernardino Pass or the Monterey-Carmel coast road in California.
However the Antrim coast road can boast two advantages over the competition — first of all, lack of traffic. During the autumn you might pass a dozen cars midweek. Secondly, on the San Bernardino Pass into Switzerland, you can search all day and you won’t find a cod and chips in the same league as that sold by McKillop’s in
Carnlough. By the way, there’s another implausibly beautiful harbour there, looking out over “Sweet Carnlough Bay”, where you can sit and thoughtfully munch your chips.
There are of course parts of this road which barely need any mention. The Giant’s Causeway, for centuries a geological wonder known only to kelp gatherers and sheep herders, is rightly famous throughout the world. Likewise the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. However my own favourite on this superb road is a little place called Ballintoy
Harbour, nestling at the end of a long winding road. From here you can climb the rocks, paddle in the pools - or simply contemplate the scenery. The Nine Glens of Antrim all make there way to the sea hereabouts, and each is equally spectacular. And just like it says in the song, “You’d imagine a picture of heaven it could be, / Where the Green
Glens of Antrim are calling to me.”
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