NI and Ireland: Day 3 & 4

At the beach in Castlerock

We went to the Northern Ireland MILK Cup Championship games on Friday night in Ballymena. The MILk Cup is supposed to be one of the most prestigious soccer/football (depending on where you’re from) tournaments in the world. Ironically, Northern Ireland Elite played the USA Elite for the trophy. We were able to cheer on the USA to a 3-0 victory. Us Americans were a little outnumbered and we wished the NI’s could have scored a goal because the place would have gone crazy.

Saturday we spend the day driving around Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. We started at an ocean village called Castlerock. It was right on the ocean and was an adorable place. We enjoyed walking on the beach and seeing all the gorgeous surroundings. We were definitely wind-blown after our walk, some of the locals said a storm was coming so we hurried to the car just in time for it to start raining. We made our way up the coast a few miles to Mussenden Temple and Downhill Demesne – the ruins of a home and temple built by Earl Bishop Hervey. The buildings are built right on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. Sadly, the home fell into disarray and it nothing more than the surrounding walls.

We got back in the car for a nice, scenic drive to the town of Derry/Londonderry. It uses both names because of its proximity to the border of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The city center is surrounded by a large brick wall which allowed us to circle the city from above. We enjoyed some of the sights including – St. Columb’s Cathedral, Guild Hall, and many shops and pubs.

Mussenden Temple on the Cliffs

Entering the walled city of Londonderry

From there we made our first trip into the Republic of Ireland. We knew we didn’t have a lot of time to spend touring Ireland, but we wanted to say we had been there so we had planned to drive across the border, get out of the car and stand on Irish soil, then head back for more sightseeing in NI. Once we started looking around we couldn’t help but continue on further down the Irish roads – many of those only one-lane wide. We basically toured the entire Inishowen Peninsula (the northern most region of the island). We were literally at the end of nowhere. Our drive consisted of sunny skies followed by spinkles and down-pours of rain (repeat cycle over and over), sheep in the road, and some of the most breathtaking view of the ocean we have ever seen! The greenest grass and fields met the bluest ocean – with specks of white (sheeps) and black (cows) scattered throughout the green. Our tour of the peninsula included the northern most point in Ireland – Malin Head, which also fittingly had the northernmost pub serving, of course, Guiness! We drove through the Gap of Mamore – a very steep and winding road that cuts through some of the areas higher elevations. It was an awesome view – probably one of the top highlights from our day! Most of our drive was right on the coast – we feel very lucky to have experienced this area. It doesn’t seem like a normal tourist destination, but we are very glad we could make the trip!

Up the hill into the Gap of Mamore - watch out for sheep!

Heading back down....

So worth the view!!

The short time we spent in Ireland only made us hungry for more and we hope to return to the Republic of Ireland very soon!

The end of Ireland!