Carrick-A-Rede is a famous rope bridge from Northern Ireland that is located near the Ballintoy harbour. It is one of the most visited tourist spot from the country in recent years. This bridge connects to the tiny Carrickarede island with the mainland. There have been always a bridge over there for more than 350 years, and they were in different forms and shapes. The recent one was built during 2008.
Previously the Carrick-A-Rede bridge was free for everyone. But since the recent crowed the bridge was very difficult to access for the tourists for busy queue (i.e. one may stand there for a long period to take selfies!). If anyone wants to see the bridge then they won’t need to pay. But if anyone wants to cross the bridge then have to count 7 pound for an adult. You’ll be given an hour to cross the bridge. After that the validity of the ticket will be expired.
Summer is the peak time for the tourist. This bridge expects lot of visitors that time compare to the other seasons. Most of the tourists use to come here at after 10am or at afternoon (as the day trip tourist buses start to arrive here after visiting the Giant’s Causeway). The bridge opens for the visitors at 9:30am, and the ticket counter uses to open 15 minutes before that. You are expecting a long queue during the peak season.
Anyway, after having a sound sleep last night we had the breakfast from our B&B hotel. We’ve done the checkout at around 10am to catch the first bus of the day which starts at 10:05am from Ballycastle. We wanted to start even early, but couldn’t due to unavailability of the public transport during weekend. The bus cost 3 pound for each and takes around 10 minutes to reach near the bridge (in fact you have to walk for few yards after that). The bus driver would call you when you reach there if you request him.
Lot of tourists have already gathered there by the blessing of their private vehicle, plus the day trip or group trip parties. But it wasn’t that much of crowd luckily. We’ve got our visiting time between 10:30am to 11:30am. It requires a fair amount of walk from the ticket counter to the bridge. And the surrounding area is very picturesque (can be even better during a sunny day) that it would eventually slow you down and cost more time to reach. We’ve enjoyed that walking. It was the coastline at the left, and the mountain was at the right side. And the sun was trying to get over the mountain to shine with pride.
Carrick-a-rede bridge is a small one and doesn’t look that much of challenging. Till current date no accident ever happened yet. But few times it happened that few people got scared and couldn’t able to return back. They were carried back to the mainland by the boat. We’ve seen a small boat on the island. I guess those poor visitors had taken the service of that boat.
The island is a very tinny one. Also it doesn’t have any railing around it. That’s why visitors are not allowed to go after a certain point (can say after few meters of crossing). That’s why it is packed with visitors there, and everyone is trying to have their own photo there. If anyone is interested to take their own photo then have to wait for a while. And this waiting doesn’t last very long fortunately.
After visiting the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge we started our coastal walk towards the Giant’s causeway. During this walk our next destination was Larrybane Quarry where shooting of the Game of Thrones took place.
How to Go:
Assuming you are already at Ballycastle. Read this article to know how to reach at Ballycastle. There is a bus (number 402) runs for the coastline in every one hour. First one starts at 10:05am at morning during weekends. It takes around 10 minutes to reach there and cost 3 pound per person.
Note: This bus time schedule for October and during weekend. You may find bus more frequently during summer or working days. Also during weekday you may find other buses (i.e. 172) that goes for other destination but touches the Carric-a-rede rope bridge.
Where to stay:
Nearest town with all the facilities from Carrick-a-rede rope bridge is Ballycastle. You can find list of hotels from Ballycastle from the link. Most of the tourists like to spend nights at Bushmills as the Giant’s causeway is near from there. You can find list of hotels from Bushmills from this link. There are few guest houses available in between the two places. But it would be difficult for you if you do not own a private vehicle with you there (i.e. finding a restaurant nearby).
This article is the continuation after Ballycastle beach. Next destination after this place was Larrybane Quarry.
Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge,
City: Ballycastle,
County: Antrim,
Country: Northern Ireland,
GPS Coordinate (55°14’22.3″N 6°19’57.1″W)
List of hotel nearby.
This article has written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog http://icwow.blogspot.com/
Sunday, 29 October 2017
