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This is an article in my ongoing series about our trip through the British Isles. Earlier articles include the Introduction,Stonehenge, Oxford, Driving to Wales, Anglesey, Crossing the Irish Sea, and Dublin.

Northern Ireland has been getting a lot of tourist advertising lately as the country recovers from the Troubles. "The Troubles are over, Belfast is now the hottest city in the UK," and so forth. So I was a bit dismayed, the night before we headed up there, to see an hour-long documentary on the Troubles on Irish television—it turns out that this was the 40th anniversary of the Battle of the Bogside, when the Troubles began in earnest. Not exactly the kind of thing I wanted on everybody's minds when I was about to take my entire family up there! Well, I was worrying too much as usual, and our time in Northern Ireland was a contender for the best of the entire trip—but I'll have more to say about the Troubles being "over" later on, in my next article. In any event, watching the documentary had me more well-informed on Ulster history before we headed up there.

So, we set out in the morning for the Giant's causeway, on the very northern edge of the island. The most curious part of the drive was that we didn't see any signs telling us we were leaving the Republic of Ireland and entering the UK—just one sign that said "Speed limits now marked in miles per hour" (Ireland uses kilometers). Perhaps some nationalists knocked the "Welcome to the UK" sign down—or were the authorities afraid to put one up? Anyway if they were afraid to show that they were in the UK, the residents clearly were not: every village we came to had Union Jacks and Ulster flags all over: every lampost, and in some neighbourhoods every single house was adorned with flags. It was impressive, and one street in particular that we went through I was very disappointed not to get a picture of. Our route took us through the staunchly unionist eastern part of the country, though—in the west by Londonderry there are apparently more nationalist neighbourhoods.

Anyway, our destination was what is described as the most impressive natural wonder in all of Ireland and probably the entire UK: the bizarre coastal rock formations called the Giant's Causeway. This was a beautiful area, and we were lucky to have beautiful weather as well—and the causeway itself was definitely worth the visit: Emilie raved that it was her favourite part of the whole trip. There are a number of interesting rock formations all in the same concentrated area, and all related in the local folklore to the legend of the giant Finn McCool, which was related to us by our guide as we took the bus down from the parking area to the rocks. More enthusiastic visitors can hike down, and all around the area to see even more than we did, but we were constrained both by time and by our toddler. Still, hearing about Finn McCool from an enthusiastic guide with a thick Irish brogue gave plenty of atmosphere to the visit, so ultimately I was glad we took the shuttle.

Basically, the causeway was just awesome, and I hope our photos explain that well enough, since I can't really find the words to.

After that we headed to the little coastal town of Carrickfergus, which would be a great place to spend the summer. (It reminded me of Cape Cod, or Clear Lake for my Iowan readers. Except that Carrickfergus' marina is dominated by a 12th century castle.) Our hotel was located right on the water across from the castle, and was beautiful. The drive there was beautiful too, with some lovely little roads winding through a mountainous terrain, but (as is often the case when driving on mountain roads), I couldn't really enjoy the drive because I always had a local on my back bumper—they can speed through these roads because they know what's around every corner, but I can hardly accelerate safely when I never know when a steep drop or sharp turn is just ahead!

Anyway, we stayed in Carrickfergus because the castle looked cooler than anything in Belfast, and it was only about 20-30 minutes away from Belfast anyway (where our ferry would be leaving the next day). I was glad we did it this way, because it was a very pleasant place to pass through, and it was easier to find restaurants and parking there than it would have been in a larger city. So I recommend it. As usual, though, we couldn't stay for long, as the next morning we were headed out of Northern Ireland, and on to Scotland!