North Antrim Coast 3/14

A coastal day along the Irish Sea. It was mostly sunny today but foggy out in the sea so Scotland was hidden in a dense gray mass. The coast is all narrow curvy roads and sea views with small pretty villages along it. I stopped to see the Glenariff forest park. Glens are apparently narrow gorges with watercourses, usually forested, often glacial in origin. This glen had amazing views out to the sea but not so much forest (at least not for an American westerner). There are 9 or 10 glens in Antrim depending on your interpretation. View from the park to the sea:

I also traveled the Torr Head road. This is an extremely narrow two laner. In the US it would be a one way street. I was pleased to see very few cars and most I did see passed me while I was stopped looking at things. Gorgeous views. The community there is very tightly knit as it was essentially cut off from the mainland--it was harder to get overland than to simply take a boat to Scotland--and many of the people working these very steep and rocky farms are Scottish in origin. The views are amazing but honestly it seems like a very hard life. Nothing much was flat. View of the area:

Here's my car which is kindly taking me everywhere:

After Torr Head I stopped at Bonmargy Friary (Bonmargy means bottom of the Margy which is the river) and then at Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. Which wasn't as scary as it might sound. 

I then decided to stay in Bushmills tonight as my knee was too irritated to handle the Giants Causeway so I found a darling little room above a pub, had dinner and then a beer, a cider and a shot of a homemade potatoe...whiskey? While chatting with some Irishmen and a pair of Germans. One of the Irishmen was from Strangford Lough and was doing some work up here. They are all quite entertained by the American political circus even as they are also worried about what it means for Europe. The Germans disliked the similarities to Hitler that they see in our Republican "front runner" and I disliked that Hilary seemed to be the only alternate--they barely knew about Sanders. 

The coast up here seems better cared for, maybe a bit more prosperous, than the Mourne area.