Visit The Giant’s Causeway Without The Crowds – Part 2

After visiting the Giant’s Causeway on a particularly sunny day in May, to find it crawling with tourists, I wrote about how I would do things differently if I were to visit again – well, now I have visited again and with much greater success, so here’s a quick update on how to visit the Giant’s Causeway without the crowds.

Practicalities of visiting

Much of the practical information in my previous blog, Enjoy A Long Weekend In Belfast And See The Giant’s Causeway (Without The Crowds) still stands – when to visit, where to stay, how to access the Giant’s Causeway, the Visitors Centre and what you’ll find when you get to the Causeway Itself – so take a look at that blog as a compliment to this one. I’ll try not to repeat myself too much here.

What we did differently this time?

Here are the things we did differently on this visit to the Giant’s Causeway:

• Time of year – the first difference was that we travelled in March rather than May, when it would be potentially quieter.
• Positioning – this time, I followed my own advice and headed north from Belfast International Airport towards Bushmills Village once we’d collected our hire car, where we would stay for the night.  This meant that we were in the right position to visit The Giant’s Causeway first thing in the morning.
• Inland Route – rather than taking the Coastal Route, we drove inland and stopped at the Dark Hedges.

The Dark Hedges (Game of Thrones filming site)

This beautiful avenue of beech trees (150 trees in total) features in several episodes of HBO’s TV series Game of Thrones, appearing as the Kings Road. Due to the popularity of this series, the Dark Hedges have become a popular tourist attraction for those visiting Northern Ireland and many tour companies include it on their routes, such as From Belfast: Giant’s Causeway and Game of Thrones Day Tour through Get Your Guide.

Parking – if you are travelling by car to the Dark Hedges, then you will find parking in front of the Hedges Hotel on Ballinlea Road. It costs £5.00, which seems a bit steep but avoids you parking on the road, which is quite busy, or at the entrance to Bregagh Road where the Dark Hedges are located. Note – although there are no barriers, Bregagh Road is pedestrianised and parking on Bregagh Road is prohibited is due to a conservation order in place to protect the trees (although this didn’t stop some people ignoring the signs and parking at the end of the road!).

Route to the Dark Hedges – from the car park, the route to the Dark Hedges is signposted, so just follow the short trail (only a couple of minutes) which takes you in front of Gracehill House, a lovely Georgian mansion built for the Stuart family in the 18th century. The owner wanted to impress people arriving at Gracehill House, and so planted the beech trees which are today known as the Dark Hedges. Note – the trail brings you to Ballinlea Road which you need to take care in crossing to reach the avenue of trees.

The Dark Hedges looked lovely and instantly worthy as a film location, however as we visited in March the branches looked quite bare and so I would image then are stunning with more foliage! It was quiet when we arrived at around 4pm, with just one other family (and a lady walking a pram – you’ll see her in the photos!) admiring the avenue of trees stretching before us.

We didn’t spot The Grey Lady, a ghostly figure said to wander between the trees after nightfall, as it was too early. Then as we were leaving two minibuses of visitors arrived giving us a flavour of how popular the site must be.

The Bushmills Inn

We checked into the Bushmills Inn around 5pm which gave us time to relax for a bit before dinner. Whilst not cheap, Bushmills Inn is wonderful ‘luxury boutique’ accommodation – welcoming staff, lovely decoration, and very comfortable beds.

If you’re not staying at the hotel, you can still visit the cosy Gas Bar at Bushmills Inn which had music on when we stayed or book a table at the lovely restaurant with whitewashed walls and wooden booths offering great seasonal and locally sourced dishes. It was a bit of a splurge, but was definitely worth it, with the benefit of only being a 5-minute drive from the Giant’s Causeway.

Visit the Giant’s Causeway at sunrise

We decided to set our alarms for 6.30am and make a quick dash to the Giant’s Causeway before it officially opened at 8.00am (the car park and the Visitors Centre).

Parking – on arrival just before 7.00am, we parked in front of the Causeway Hotel next door to the Visitor Centre. Our understanding was that you could do this for free before 8.00am, after which you should either park in the official car park or pay a small charge at the Causeway Hotel. We got back to our car around 8.30am and all was well.

The Giant’s Causeway is not closed off and so you can reach it by taking the road in front of the Visitor Centre, a 15-20 minute walk downhill.

The Legend of Giant Finn McCool – we said hello to Humphrey the Camel (rock formation) on our left, who is appears in the Legend of Finn McCool, a Giant said to have helped form the Giant’s Causeway by ripping up great chunks of the Antrim coastline and throwing them into the sea to save Ireland from the advancing Scottish Giant Benandonner (Google the full story, or find out more from the Giant’s Causeway Visitor Centre). Humphrey was said to be the only steed carrying Finn across the long distances!

Exploring the Giant’s Causeway outcrops and formations

The Giant’s Causeway was completely empty when we arrived which was rather wonderful and allowed us to explore and take photographs without having to fight for the views. Admittedly, the scenes were rather dark and moody as it was sunrise, but the pink hue in the sky made it atmospheric.

The view of these 60 million-year-old pieces of volcanic lava cooled into 40,000 hexagonal basalt columns, still impressed second time around. There is just something very satisfactory about how the basalt columns fit together to create the Causeway.

Last time, I was looking for the Wishing Chair rock formation, a natural throne made up of hexagonal columns, on the Grand Causeway (the largest of the 3 rock outputs) and thought it was where a lot of people were sitting at the top with a fantastic view out to sea (but which we couldn’t get near). However, this time I realised that the Wishing Chair is on the outcrop to the left, and that it actually faces inwards.

Years ago, only ladies were allowed to sit on the Wishing Chair, but today, it’s available to everyone, and the stones are shiny where people have sat and worn them down over the years.

As you leave the outcrops of the Giant’s Causeway and pass into Port Noffer, you will walk past the amazing Giant’s Loom structure which is a wall of vertical rock columns and is particularly stunning.

Once in the bay of Port Noffer, look for the Giant’s Boot on the rocky shore – said to be the boot lost by Giant Finn as he fled the wrath of his Scottish rival. It’s a popular spot for photos.

We walked up part of the Shepherd’s Steps and pathway to the base of the Giant’s Organ (Organ Pipes) rock formation in the cliff face. Whilst you can get the scale of the pipes from the base, it is best viewed from a distance if you want to take photographs. From there you can carry on around the corner to the Amphitheatre, although we stopped at this point.

Pros and Cons of visiting at sunrise

Pros – the advantage of visiting the Giant’s Causeway at this time of day is that you’re likely to have the place all to yourself. All in all, I think we saw a total of 3 other people on our visit – 2 joggers and 1 other interested party admiring the Giant’s Causeway.

Cons – the downsides really relate to not being able to access the Visitor Centre, so you can’t pick up an audio handset or grab information about the Causeway or use the facilities if needed, although there’s nothing stopping you paying for the Visitor Centre after the causeway and doing it back to front.

So you have options, but if you don’t want to visit the Giant’s Causeway at sunrise, then you could try sunset, or just in the middle of the day along with everyone else. We enjoyed getting up early, exploring on our own and still making it back to our Bushmills hotel for a cooked breakfast – perfect!

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