Northern Waters
From the stunning Antrim coast to the lakes of Fermanagh.
White Rocks beach.
Stack.
Large flints, confirming the suspicion that these white rocks are chalk. Interestingly, the nearby basalt of the Giant's Causeway suggests that this area was a coral reef forming around volcanic island. The chalk is also peppered with pieces of black basalt, suggesting that the volcano was errupting while the reef was forming. Must have looked awesome.
Parallel caves at White Rocks.
A long through cave or wide arch through a distant buttress.
Free-standing arch at White Rocks. The distant arch can be seen through the middle. The arch is deceptively tall, between 10 and 15 metres tall. I initally walked past it thinking it was just a stack, trying to get into a position to photograph the distant arch.
Dunluce Castle from its west side. The Giant's Causeway can be seen in the distance.
Dunluce Castle from its east side.
Just beyond it is a third beautiful rock arch. The previously 'distant arch' can once again be seen in the distance. The free standing arch appears on the right of the picture, but does not look like an arch from here.
Start of the Giant's Causeway site (Port Ganny). This is depressingly free of basalt columns. Note for National Trust members; although they own the site, you still have to pay the council an exorbitant amount to use the car park. Though you do get a free ride on the bus from there to the bus stop you see in the next picture. Great, I'm sure.
Main part of the Giant's Causeway - the part everyone goes to see.
The small basalt column island. This is an amazing picture, not because of the quality (which is relatively poor given the distance between camera and subject), but because there are no humans in the shot. Remember this.
The Giants Causeway. The legend is that a giant from Scotland made the causeway from stones to get to a competing giant in Ireland, then ran scared back to Scotland, taking most of it with him.
Of course, the reality is that it is made from a basalt (lava) flow, that slowly cooled, contracting as it cooled, producing this beautiful fracture patern. Slower cooling produces larger diameter columns, and these were cooled very slowly. Though there are better examples in various parts of the World, these are by far the best in the British Isles. On the bottom left are the broken remnants of the columns that the sea has smashed.
Visitor mania at the Giant's Causeway. That poor little island has been mobbed. The split wall of columns is known as the Giant's Gate. I wonder which column is called Fred.
Port Noffer, the bay just beyond the causeway. The bassalt columns continue along the walls of this bay, and for many bays along the coast along here, best seen from the cliff path. In the bottom left of this bay is a rock that supposedly looks like the giant's boot, from which it takes its name. There are plenty more examples of forced naming that are used in the causeway; mundane or somewhat interesting features that do not deserve a name like the Giant's Granny and the Camel in Port Ganny, but are given a name by the management in order to get the tourists saying all of their oohs and ahhs. Like stalactities and solutional features in a showcave.
The Organ, one of the most impressive features of this bay.
Harebell on the cliff path.
The Chimney Tops, several exposed columns at the head of the next bay.
Playing the organ.
Looking up the organ, showing the gaps between the columns, and the lichens that cover them.
The Giant's Eye, like a geode that didn't manage to produce crystals.
Giant's Eye.
Port Reostan, the next bay, with superb examples of columns exposed in two separate beds, with other non-columnar beds below. Various parts of these columns get names, with twisted ones being the Giant's Harp, and the brochure mislabelling the best set in the middle as the Organ. Maybe he really liked organs and built two of them...
Mass of columns above the path. The path ends here, though it used to continue for a couple more bays. It was closed to protect the coast, as the path is not well founded. Normally I would hop the fence and continue, but really, you get to see enough already. To see more, use the clifftop path.
Beside the Giant's Gate.
Climbing onto the causeway. It might seem a little wrong to have so many people abrade the surface, but it's extremely hard wearing. Also, the sea will still abrade it even if people don't.
Steeple of clumsy colums at the start of the causeway.
The columns are grey when dry, black when wet. Ones that are regularly in the splash zone stay black. Ones in the tide zone are often covered with barnacles. The grey columns often appear to have a red tint, perhaps from the red rock beds seen earlier.
Black columns.
Although the columns look like giant crystals, they are actually just fracture patterns, like joints in limestone. Nominally, they have six sides, but this is only on average.
Some have seven or more.
Some have five or less.
Some even manage to have just three.
Splashes landing on the causeway.
Beautiful columns on the island. These are referred to as the Wishing Chair, or something. Who cares. They're beautiful - admire them for that, and not a stupid name.
Tones of the columns on the main causeway as they step out of the splash zone.
Displaced basalt boulders, with their own fracture patterns (the Honeycombs? whatever, I don't care about their names). A cool feature that is rarely seen in pictures of the causeway. Hard for people to see past the main columns, I guess. Time to 'roll' on to the rest of the Antrim coast.
Dunseverick Castle.
Whitepark Bay with Rathlin Island.
Crystal clear water in Larrybane Bay, with the little Stackaboy stacks, and Sheep Island.
Strong ocean currents feeding the Irish Sea, held back by Sheep Island.
Carrick Island at the other end of the bay.
The continuing coast with Kinbane (White Head) and Benmore/Fair Head.
Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, built for the last 350 years by fishermen to provide a convenient route to Carrick Island, where they could catch the salmon that follow the ocean current. It is built each spring, and removed each autumn.
Crossing the 20 metre Carrick-a-Rede bridge, 30 metres above the sand. What's the point? For most people; to prove they can. For some it's the view (that can already be seen from the coast). For others, it's the wildlife.
Self portrait. The bridge is so sturdy it's almost wussy (it wasn't always like this). You have to jump to make it bounce around. Still, a few people had backed out, despite paying to get here, and queueing for the bridge itself (it gets a lot of visitors).
Small building and crane used by the fishermen.
The wildlife include these beautiful razorbills, who seem very proud of the worst nest ever.
Gulls raising chicks.
Guillemots.
Of course, all of this means that the island has a less than pleasent smell of bird droppings that hits you as soon as you get off the bridge.
Oystercatcher, demonstrating why you should use tracking-aware anti-shake. I failed.
Several further little islands beyond the main Carrick Island are also home to many guillemots, though they are nicely camouflaged there.
Returning over the bridge.
Six-spot Burnet, a very pretty moth.
Bumblebee.
Mull of Kintyre, seen over Carrick Island and Rathlin Island. The Mull of Kintyre, part of Scotland, is the closest part of the British mainland to Ireland, at about 20 km away from Torr Head, just beyond Benmore/Fair Head.
On the other side of Rathlin Island is a distant view of Islay, one of the Scotish Hebrides. Oh, and if you saw an idiot with a camera in the car park falling off a fence, that would be me, taking those two pictures. It was either me or the camera, and I can fix myself for free. It was almost worth it just for the beautiful Irish woman who offered to help. Should I have feigned an injury just so she would stay longer?
Benmore/Fair Head.
Knocklayd (514 metres). Heading back over Northern Ireland now.
Lough Neagh at Ballyronan. Though its 30 km length is easily surpassed by several lakes (such as Lough Corrib in Galway, and Lochs Awe, Lomond and Ness in Scotland), and its 3.5 km2 volume is easily surpassed by Loch Ness, this is the lake with the largest surface area in the British Isles at 392 km2, due to its impressive width. The far shore is just visible in this picture, about 15 km away.
Rocks in the lake.
O ... K ... Guess we're back in one of those areas. Brought to you from Cookstown. I understand that in Belfast, they get a whole lot more enthusiastic with these.
Now back in Fermanagh, and heading up Cuilcagh. This is the heart of the major caving area in Northern Ireland. The limestone is quite special for the British Isles, consisting of knolls instead of normal reef beds.
These knolls (including Hanging Rock from two galleries ago) are made from coral reefs which were trying to grow upwards as fast as possible to cope with rising sea levels. When they were eventually converted to limestone, the shapes remained. Tullyhona Rising Cave is somewhere around here.
Knolls.
Cuilcagh, the home of most of the southern set of caves. It is either 665 metres tall or 666 metres tall. 666 seems to be the real height, but in a religiously sensitive area, they may use 665 to avoid offending people. The major Shannon Cave is under the right flank, and a few smaller caves are under the left flank. Both sets extend over the border into County Cavan in the Republic of Ireland.
Fighting through the thick undergrowth, hidden under leaves and branches, the ground suddenly drops 20 metres into a massive shakehole. This is normal for Fermanagh. Caves are nearly impossible to find due to the undergrowth, but may be extremely dangerous if you accidentally reach one. This particular example is one of the entrances to Marble Arch Cave, and is almost invisible until you slide down the first couple of metres into it, under the branches.
Marble Arch entrance, another shakehole.
Marble Arch river. Who needs to be a tourist when a caver can go here out of hours?
The Marble Arch.
Flood scum.
Downstream gorge which reaches Cascades Rising Cave.
Fake cave, probably about 100 years old, for the wusses who dared not enter a real cave.
Lower Lough Macnean. Behind it are the various forested hills like Belmore and Ballintempo. This is home to all the other major caves of Northern Ireland, such as Boho, Carrickbeg Rising Cave, Reyfad, Noon's-Arch and Pollaraftra.
Canoeing to the Devenish monastic site, situated on Devenish Island in Lower Lough Erne.
Through the reeds of a tiny islet.
Devenish Monastic Site. The site is around 1500 years old, though none of the buildings are as old as that. The round tower is over 800 years old, and is about 30 metres tall. Note that the door is several metres up the tower. This site is maintained, but not manned, and the tower is locked.
Carvings of saints on the tower. The tower has several floors accessed using ladders, but has very little space inside. It may have been used to store treasure or to provide protection during an attack or raid.
Saint Molaise's House (church), also over 800 years old, and the oldest building on the site.
400 year old, intricately carved cross in front of the priory.
Wording on a gravestone. Clearly, whoever did this had no idea how to plan what they were writing, and had to wrap in the middle of words, use tiny letters in places and miss out some random letters. I would have sent it back and asked for a replacement.
Priory doorway with carved figure.
Vaulted ceiling. The holes are murder holes, to allow dropping of rocks or scalding liquids on attackers.
Beautifully carved doorway.
Kayaking back through the reeds.
Boating through the locks in the river channel between Upper and Lower Lough Erne. When flow rates change the heights of the lakes, the bridge-looking-thing drops a gate into the river to control the levels and flow.
Pilot.
Reed beds, showing how shallow most of this lake is.
Marooned cows.
Storm clouds over the lake. A little rain never hurt anybody, and the camera has an umbrella, so let it rain.
The vast majority of islands, and the non-limestone hills here are drumlins. They're not as spectacular as in Clew Bay though, since their shapes are obliterated by the dense tree and undergrowth cover.
Swan family.
Great crested grebe, with young, trying to dive to hide.
Lower Lough Erne is by far the larger of two lakes, with a surface area of 109.5 km2. Combined, the two lakes have 144 km2, which would hold third place in the British Isles, and a total navigable length of 72 km end-to-end (which would easily hold first place), but they are separated by a 16 km long navigable section of river, so they should be considered separately.
Heron in the process of spearing a fish. The blurred picture is the camera and lens working at their limits with the boat moving so much, and the zoom being so high.
Foxgloves on Inish Davar.
Landing on a private island - something dreamy about that.
Pile driver creating a new jetty. Now how did they get that massive vehicle there?
Fishing in front of the Cliffs of Magho.
Church ruin on White Island.
Carved figures in the church.
View out into the open part of the lake, the largest part of it, with relatively few islands.
Horse Island, recognisable as the one with almost no trees.
Seaplane. Get the idea there might be a lot of water here.
Sailing past a wreck.
Canoeists ... or ... kayaks ... whatever, paddling past the islands.
Coot says the gallery is finished.
Before we left, I also payed a quick visit to the fascinating Boho caves (no pictures, sorry).
White Rocks beach.
Stack.
Large flints, confirming the suspicion that these white rocks are chalk. Interestingly, the nearby basalt of the Giant's Causeway suggests that this area was a coral reef forming around volcanic island. The chalk is also peppered with pieces of black basalt, suggesting that the volcano was errupting while the reef was forming. Must have looked awesome.
Parallel caves at White Rocks.
A long through cave or wide arch through a distant buttress.
Free-standing arch at White Rocks. The distant arch can be seen through the middle. The arch is deceptively tall, between 10 and 15 metres tall. I initally walked past it thinking it was just a stack, trying to get into a position to photograph the distant arch.
Dunluce Castle from its west side. The Giant's Causeway can be seen in the distance.
Dunluce Castle from its east side.
Just beyond it is a third beautiful rock arch. The previously 'distant arch' can once again be seen in the distance. The free standing arch appears on the right of the picture, but does not look like an arch from here.
Start of the Giant's Causeway site (Port Ganny). This is depressingly free of basalt columns. Note for National Trust members; although they own the site, you still have to pay the council an exorbitant amount to use the car park. Though you do get a free ride on the bus from there to the bus stop you see in the next picture. Great, I'm sure.
Main part of the Giant's Causeway - the part everyone goes to see.
The small basalt column island. This is an amazing picture, not because of the quality (which is relatively poor given the distance between camera and subject), but because there are no humans in the shot. Remember this.
The Giants Causeway. The legend is that a giant from Scotland made the causeway from stones to get to a competing giant in Ireland, then ran scared back to Scotland, taking most of it with him.
Of course, the reality is that it is made from a basalt (lava) flow, that slowly cooled, contracting as it cooled, producing this beautiful fracture patern. Slower cooling produces larger diameter columns, and these were cooled very slowly. Though there are better examples in various parts of the World, these are by far the best in the British Isles. On the bottom left are the broken remnants of the columns that the sea has smashed.
Visitor mania at the Giant's Causeway. That poor little island has been mobbed. The split wall of columns is known as the Giant's Gate. I wonder which column is called Fred.
Port Noffer, the bay just beyond the causeway. The bassalt columns continue along the walls of this bay, and for many bays along the coast along here, best seen from the cliff path. In the bottom left of this bay is a rock that supposedly looks like the giant's boot, from which it takes its name. There are plenty more examples of forced naming that are used in the causeway; mundane or somewhat interesting features that do not deserve a name like the Giant's Granny and the Camel in Port Ganny, but are given a name by the management in order to get the tourists saying all of their oohs and ahhs. Like stalactities and solutional features in a showcave.
The Organ, one of the most impressive features of this bay.
Harebell on the cliff path.
The Chimney Tops, several exposed columns at the head of the next bay.
Playing the organ.
Looking up the organ, showing the gaps between the columns, and the lichens that cover them.
The Giant's Eye, like a geode that didn't manage to produce crystals.
Giant's Eye.
Port Reostan, the next bay, with superb examples of columns exposed in two separate beds, with other non-columnar beds below. Various parts of these columns get names, with twisted ones being the Giant's Harp, and the brochure mislabelling the best set in the middle as the Organ. Maybe he really liked organs and built two of them...
Mass of columns above the path. The path ends here, though it used to continue for a couple more bays. It was closed to protect the coast, as the path is not well founded. Normally I would hop the fence and continue, but really, you get to see enough already. To see more, use the clifftop path.
Beside the Giant's Gate.
Climbing onto the causeway. It might seem a little wrong to have so many people abrade the surface, but it's extremely hard wearing. Also, the sea will still abrade it even if people don't.
Steeple of clumsy colums at the start of the causeway.
The columns are grey when dry, black when wet. Ones that are regularly in the splash zone stay black. Ones in the tide zone are often covered with barnacles. The grey columns often appear to have a red tint, perhaps from the red rock beds seen earlier.
Black columns.
Although the columns look like giant crystals, they are actually just fracture patterns, like joints in limestone. Nominally, they have six sides, but this is only on average.
Some have seven or more.
Some have five or less.
Some even manage to have just three.
Splashes landing on the causeway.
Beautiful columns on the island. These are referred to as the Wishing Chair, or something. Who cares. They're beautiful - admire them for that, and not a stupid name.
Tones of the columns on the main causeway as they step out of the splash zone.
Displaced basalt boulders, with their own fracture patterns (the Honeycombs? whatever, I don't care about their names). A cool feature that is rarely seen in pictures of the causeway. Hard for people to see past the main columns, I guess. Time to 'roll' on to the rest of the Antrim coast.
Dunseverick Castle.
Whitepark Bay with Rathlin Island.
Crystal clear water in Larrybane Bay, with the little Stackaboy stacks, and Sheep Island.
Strong ocean currents feeding the Irish Sea, held back by Sheep Island.
Carrick Island at the other end of the bay.
The continuing coast with Kinbane (White Head) and Benmore/Fair Head.
Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, built for the last 350 years by fishermen to provide a convenient route to Carrick Island, where they could catch the salmon that follow the ocean current. It is built each spring, and removed each autumn.
Crossing the 20 metre Carrick-a-Rede bridge, 30 metres above the sand. What's the point? For most people; to prove they can. For some it's the view (that can already be seen from the coast). For others, it's the wildlife.
Self portrait. The bridge is so sturdy it's almost wussy (it wasn't always like this). You have to jump to make it bounce around. Still, a few people had backed out, despite paying to get here, and queueing for the bridge itself (it gets a lot of visitors).
Small building and crane used by the fishermen.
The wildlife include these beautiful razorbills, who seem very proud of the worst nest ever.
Gulls raising chicks.
Guillemots.
Of course, all of this means that the island has a less than pleasent smell of bird droppings that hits you as soon as you get off the bridge.
Oystercatcher, demonstrating why you should use tracking-aware anti-shake. I failed.
Several further little islands beyond the main Carrick Island are also home to many guillemots, though they are nicely camouflaged there.
Returning over the bridge.
Six-spot Burnet, a very pretty moth.
Bumblebee.
Mull of Kintyre, seen over Carrick Island and Rathlin Island. The Mull of Kintyre, part of Scotland, is the closest part of the British mainland to Ireland, at about 20 km away from Torr Head, just beyond Benmore/Fair Head.
On the other side of Rathlin Island is a distant view of Islay, one of the Scotish Hebrides. Oh, and if you saw an idiot with a camera in the car park falling off a fence, that would be me, taking those two pictures. It was either me or the camera, and I can fix myself for free. It was almost worth it just for the beautiful Irish woman who offered to help. Should I have feigned an injury just so she would stay longer?
Benmore/Fair Head.
Knocklayd (514 metres). Heading back over Northern Ireland now.
Lough Neagh at Ballyronan. Though its 30 km length is easily surpassed by several lakes (such as Lough Corrib in Galway, and Lochs Awe, Lomond and Ness in Scotland), and its 3.5 km2 volume is easily surpassed by Loch Ness, this is the lake with the largest surface area in the British Isles at 392 km2, due to its impressive width. The far shore is just visible in this picture, about 15 km away.
Rocks in the lake.
O ... K ... Guess we're back in one of those areas. Brought to you from Cookstown. I understand that in Belfast, they get a whole lot more enthusiastic with these.
Now back in Fermanagh, and heading up Cuilcagh. This is the heart of the major caving area in Northern Ireland. The limestone is quite special for the British Isles, consisting of knolls instead of normal reef beds.
These knolls (including Hanging Rock from two galleries ago) are made from coral reefs which were trying to grow upwards as fast as possible to cope with rising sea levels. When they were eventually converted to limestone, the shapes remained. Tullyhona Rising Cave is somewhere around here.
Knolls.
Cuilcagh, the home of most of the southern set of caves. It is either 665 metres tall or 666 metres tall. 666 seems to be the real height, but in a religiously sensitive area, they may use 665 to avoid offending people. The major Shannon Cave is under the right flank, and a few smaller caves are under the left flank. Both sets extend over the border into County Cavan in the Republic of Ireland.
Fighting through the thick undergrowth, hidden under leaves and branches, the ground suddenly drops 20 metres into a massive shakehole. This is normal for Fermanagh. Caves are nearly impossible to find due to the undergrowth, but may be extremely dangerous if you accidentally reach one. This particular example is one of the entrances to Marble Arch Cave, and is almost invisible until you slide down the first couple of metres into it, under the branches.
Marble Arch entrance, another shakehole.
Marble Arch river. Who needs to be a tourist when a caver can go here out of hours?
The Marble Arch.
Flood scum.
Downstream gorge which reaches Cascades Rising Cave.
Fake cave, probably about 100 years old, for the wusses who dared not enter a real cave.
Lower Lough Macnean. Behind it are the various forested hills like Belmore and Ballintempo. This is home to all the other major caves of Northern Ireland, such as Boho, Carrickbeg Rising Cave, Reyfad, Noon's-Arch and Pollaraftra.
Canoeing to the Devenish monastic site, situated on Devenish Island in Lower Lough Erne.
Through the reeds of a tiny islet.
Devenish Monastic Site. The site is around 1500 years old, though none of the buildings are as old as that. The round tower is over 800 years old, and is about 30 metres tall. Note that the door is several metres up the tower. This site is maintained, but not manned, and the tower is locked.
Carvings of saints on the tower. The tower has several floors accessed using ladders, but has very little space inside. It may have been used to store treasure or to provide protection during an attack or raid.
Saint Molaise's House (church), also over 800 years old, and the oldest building on the site.
400 year old, intricately carved cross in front of the priory.
Wording on a gravestone. Clearly, whoever did this had no idea how to plan what they were writing, and had to wrap in the middle of words, use tiny letters in places and miss out some random letters. I would have sent it back and asked for a replacement.
Priory doorway with carved figure.
Vaulted ceiling. The holes are murder holes, to allow dropping of rocks or scalding liquids on attackers.
Beautifully carved doorway.
Kayaking back through the reeds.
Boating through the locks in the river channel between Upper and Lower Lough Erne. When flow rates change the heights of the lakes, the bridge-looking-thing drops a gate into the river to control the levels and flow.
Pilot.
Reed beds, showing how shallow most of this lake is.
Marooned cows.
Storm clouds over the lake. A little rain never hurt anybody, and the camera has an umbrella, so let it rain.
The vast majority of islands, and the non-limestone hills here are drumlins. They're not as spectacular as in Clew Bay though, since their shapes are obliterated by the dense tree and undergrowth cover.
Swan family.
Great crested grebe, with young, trying to dive to hide.
Lower Lough Erne is by far the larger of two lakes, with a surface area of 109.5 km2. Combined, the two lakes have 144 km2, which would hold third place in the British Isles, and a total navigable length of 72 km end-to-end (which would easily hold first place), but they are separated by a 16 km long navigable section of river, so they should be considered separately.
Heron in the process of spearing a fish. The blurred picture is the camera and lens working at their limits with the boat moving so much, and the zoom being so high.
Foxgloves on Inish Davar.
Landing on a private island - something dreamy about that.
Pile driver creating a new jetty. Now how did they get that massive vehicle there?
Fishing in front of the Cliffs of Magho.
Church ruin on White Island.
Carved figures in the church.
View out into the open part of the lake, the largest part of it, with relatively few islands.
Horse Island, recognisable as the one with almost no trees.
Seaplane. Get the idea there might be a lot of water here.
Sailing past a wreck.
Canoeists ... or ... kayaks ... whatever, paddling past the islands.
Coot says the gallery is finished.