Northern Ireland Day Trip Itinerary

A couple of years ago I visited Northern Ireland after a fun-filled road trip of Ireland's gorgeous emerald landscapes.  We only had one day to see as much of Northern Ireland as we could before we flew north to Norway.  Since my fiance and I are both science nerds, we prioritized our sightseeing and chose to skip Belfast in lieu of some iconic geologic sites.  I would have loved to see the Titantic Museum in Belfast as I hear it's absolutely wonderful, but unfortunately we just didn't have enough time to squeeze it into our day trip.  So for those of you in a similar time crunch situation--or for those of you looking for some travel planning inspiration--I've put together the itinerary we followed in Northern Ireland.

Stop #1: The Dark Hedges
We left from Dublin bright and early to make our way to the infamous Dark Hedges.  We stayed in Gogarty's Hostel, situated right in the middle of Temple Bar.  Our private room was small, but clean, albeit quite noisy at night due to being right in the middle of the bar scene nightlife.

From Dublin we drove on the M1 out of the city to the A1 highway and then M2 to avoid any tolls. At nearly three hours of driving, this was the longest section of our road trip, plus the drive back to Dublin. The Dark Hedges, which were filmed in HBO's Game of Thrones, are located on Bregagh Rd, Ballymoney BT53 8TP, United Kingdom near the Gracehill Golf Club.

Stop #2: Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge
The Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge is only a 20-minute drive from the Dark Hedges. Located at 119a White Park Road, Ballintoy, Ballycastle BT54 6LS, there are several different routes you can take to get there, all of which take approximately the same amount of time.


Stop #3: Giant's Causeway
Giant's Causeway, the place I most wanted to visit in Northern Ireland, is 16-minute drive to the west of the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge.  It's a nice, scenic coastal drive to these amazing basalt columns--geology at its best! The Causeway is located at 44 Causeway Road, Bushmills, County Antrim, BT57 8SU.


Stop #4: Dunluce Castle
Our fourth and last stop in Northern Ireland was Dunluce Castle, which was the seat of the earls of Antrim.  It's only a 10-minute drive from Giant's Causeway and is a nice site at which to end your road trip as the crowds here were very minimal (at least when we were there in early May).  The castle is located at 87 Dunluce Road, Bushmills, County Antrim BT57 8UY.


After our visit to Dunluce Castle we hopped back into our car and drove the three hours or so back to Dublin, where we stayed in an airport hotel before our flight to Norway.  I know four sites seems like a lot to do in one day, but they're all within 20 minutes of each other, which makes it a lot easier to manage time-wise.  The big time sink is the roundtrip drive to and from Dublin, but if you hit the road by 7 or 8 AM, fitting these four sites in is absolutely possible (and you won't regret it!).

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