Travelling by car along the north coast of Antrim is spectacular to say the least. As seems to be the way of the world the drive has to have a label. So this is the Causeway Coastal Route because it features the Giant’s Causeway. I will blog on this and other places in due course because they warrant attention. But after Ballycastle, if you are heading east, the Causeway Coastal Route turns inland (away from the Coast – go figure!) towards Cushendun and Cushendall. So most travellers miss a little pocket of Antrim that is staggeringly beautiful. This is the Torr Road which hugs the coast to Cunshendun. Ireland is noted for its green of course but in many parts that green turns brown and red in winter. Not here. In this part of Antrim you seem to get the Forty Shades all year.
View from the Torr Road, Antrim
Green and gold. Just add sunshine. Torr Road. Antrim
Green slopes that run down to the sea. Torr Road, Antrim. That current looks pretty treacherous. Scotland is visible on the horizon.
Coastal view, Torr Road.
Fences need repair whatever the weather. Torr Road, Antrim.
Of course the road leads to Torr Head. This is the closest point to Scotland and from here you look across to the Mull of Kintyre. It was very cold this morning, so I resisted the temptation to climb to the top. At the top of the headland is a tower which watches over the Sruth na Maoile (Straits of Moyle), a former haunt for privateers, and acted as a signal tower, passing on messages of ship movements to Lloyds of London. There is also a now ruined, customs station which was abandoned in 1922. Its stark ruin brings an evocative supernal element to the gorgeous views both along the coast and back towards the hinterland. Awaiting you, at the end of this drive at Cushendun, is the gateway to the Glens of Antrim, but that’s another story.
Torr Head.
Ruined Customs House, Torr Head. Antrim.
Ruins of Customs House, Torr Head
Phone Box looking towards, Torr Head.
On my first drive along this road I went past a turn off to Murlough Bay. It was an inconspicuous sign and nothing drew my attention to it. If it hadn’t been for my B&B hosts that night at Teach an Cheol, just out of Ballycastle then I would have missed this little gem entirely. They insisted I go back there before leaving Antrim. Thank you Micheál and Catherine.
The single lane road to Murlough Bay snakes off the Torr Road across brilliant green paddocks, and then suddenly drops off the plateau winding both perilously and picturesquely down to the sea. Remarkable views open up.
Limestone cliffs at Murlough Bay.
I passed a solid stone structure which intrigued me, so I dragged my eyes away from the view. It was like nothing I had seen before and I later discovered it was a lime kiln where broken limestone rock was melted to produce quicklime. This was used for mortar or for agriculture. It was a thriving industry wherever limestone and coal (for fuel) was found.
Lime kiln near Murlough Bay. Front view.
Lime Kiln from above. Showing hole where lime and coal are loaded.
Limestone cliffs
A little simple chemistry. Limestone with the application of heat breaks down to lime with the release of carbon dioxide gas as in the following reaction
CaCO3 + heat → CaO + CO2
The reaction requires about 1000 °C. They were extremely common around Ireland and Britain, indeed in the mid 1800s there were believed to be 23,000 in Cork alone. There was plenty of limestone here with the surrounding cliffs. I’m guessing there was also a good supply of coal nearby too. I am always impressed by the beauty and solidity of the industrial architecture I come across here in Ireland. The stone work of the multiple arches over the air intake is stunning.
So continuing down towards the coast I see a sign reminding me that this area was used to film episodes of Game of Thrones that hugely successful television series, still running. Of course you can see why. Film tourism has always been a big thing in Ireland what with The Quiet Man, Ryan’s Daughter, Father Ted, PS I Love You, and it continues with Game of Thrones and Star Wars.
Murlough bay is a place of singular beauty. You leave the car and walk along the track which follows the coast to a whitewashed cottage with the most perfect location in Ireland. There is a second small abandoned cottage; padlocked but in reasonable condition. A peek in the window and I can see some bottles of disinfectant and cloths suggesting a level of optimism by the owner. What a place for a holiday batch. Nearby there is another lime kiln.
This place is everything that makes Ireland beautiful. Cliffs, washing waves on rocky shores, boulder beaches, jagged headlands, green fields rolling into the sea, craggy islands, little coves. The surprising variety of landscape is a result of a rich geological melange which I might talk more about at another time, but I saw metamorphosed schist and gneisses, basalts, sandstone and conglomerate, limestone and of course the ever-present carpet of bog over it all. A geological history of 600 million years on display in this little bay. Again a sign tells us a little cove here was used in another episode of GOT.
Distant view of Murlough Bay
Murlough Bay looking east.
Murlough Bay looking west.
Basalt outcrops forming islands and bays
Murlough Bay.
Murlough Bay. Sandstone rock platform with narrow bands of conglomerate.
Murlough Bay. This view has sandstone, basalt, gneiss and limestone. A geological melange.
Murlough Bay. Abandoned cottage on the shore.
Another lime kiln on the beach at Murlough Bay.
Again a sign tells us a little cove here was used in another episode of GOT.
It is hard not to use clichés in describing this spot. I was the only one there and it was so quiet and so still. the only activity was a fishing boat, way out in the channel and the only noise was the ripples lapping the shore and the occasional squawk of a gull. There was an undisturbed equanimity and you could feel tension disappearing with the tide. Just me and my thoughts. I didn’t want to leave. I have been to so many beautiful places in Ireland, but not felt this way before. Surrounded by natural beauty, yet somehow otherworldly.
Extraordinary.
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