Birthplace of Three Legends

Northern Ireland: the fourth principality of the United Kingdom, and the birthplace of many legends. Yesterday, we took a guided tour throughout Northern Ireland, starting by boarding the Irish Rail train from Dublin to Belfast. Belfast, the second largest city on the island, and the capital of Northern Ireland, is where the literary legend CS Lewis was born and raised. In his late teens, he moved to England and became the legend that he is today.

In Belfast, we hopped on a tour bus, driven by a native called Alan Beck. We drove north, seeing the city of Carrick-Fergus first, which is along Belfast Loch, where William of Orange came into the country to stamp out Cromwell’s rebellion in the seventeenth century. From there we kept driving, going along the entire northeastern coast of Ireland. We drove through countless stunning views of the Irish countryside, including about nine glens (or valleys), pastures of grazing sheep, little fishing towns, and the rocky coast of the Irish Sea which turned into the coast of the Atlantic Ocean as we continued to drive north and east along the water’s edge.

I had never seen scenery quite like what I experienced in Northern Ireland, although I expect to be enthralled by the train ride tomorrow through central and southern Ireland as well.

Alan, the driver, was also the commentator, talking to us passengers through a microphone the entire time, giving us information about the area. For example, Liam Neeson (another legend, in my book) was born in Northern Ireland as well, close to Belfast.

Our first of three big stops was the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, a 70-foot long, wobbly bridge between two craggy islands by the coast. My parents opted to pay the five euros a piece to cross it, and I was a witness to the fact that they did. But I’m pretty sure people would have believed them just by my dad’s intense perspiration and the petrified expression on my mom’s face.

Our next stop was Dunluce Castle, an ancient fortification on a cliff that CS Lewis based his Narnian castle Cair Paravel on. Having read Prince Caspian, I felt like I had seen this marvelous fort before, even though this was my first time in Northern Ireland.

Finally, we came to Giant’s Causeway, the farthest point we traveled to along the coast. This is a rock formation that looks like thousands of hexagonal cylinders side by side that juts out into the ocean before going underneath the waves. Apparently, there’s an identical formation off the western coast of Scotland.

I had an audio guide (an electronic device I held up to my ear that told me about the Giant’s Causeway as I walked down to and around it). The audio guide (Jimmy) said he had two stories of how the Causeway was made. First, he told the legend of Finn McCool, a giant who wanted to get across the Irish Sea to Scotland, where his enemy lived in order to fight him. So in one night, he made a pathway to Scotland. But when he got there, his enemy was a lot bigger than he looked from across the Sea. So Finn McCool ran back to Ireland, with his enemy chasing him. He told his wife he was in trouble, so she put a baby’s bonnet on her husband and shoved him in a crib.

When his Scottish enemy got to his house and saw what he thought was the baby of the family, he thought, “Blimey! If the baby’s that big, how big is the father??” He ran scared back to Scotland, tearing up much of the causeway as he went.

The next story the guide told was how over millions of years, a volcano (that isn’t here anymore) made these rocks, then over millions of years, the pounding waves shaped them into perfect hexagonal cylinders. Two fairy tales in a row! I loved it!

Yes, Northern Ireland is a place full of legends. From stories of how this gorgeous scenery became the way it is, to legendary people calling this little place home. All in all, it was a brilliant tour! We saw sights we never thought we’d see, felt the wind and smelled the water of the North Atlantic, and heard a thick Irish accent the entire way.