For our last full day in Ireland, Beth had found one more adventure for us. We woke up Monday, quickly packed our bags, and headed about 45 minutes north of Belfast to the Gobbins.
And what a way to close out the trip.
The Gobbins is a cliffside walk that took us along the rocky coastline, through caves, and over bridges, with the ocean right beside us. We spent about two hours making our way along the path, learning about the birds that nest along the cliffs and taking in some absolutely breathtaking scenery.
Beth had found it online, and it ended up being a wonderful way to get outside and do something physical before the long journey home (golfing six days in a row wasn't physical enough!). Seriously though, this was a different kind of walking as it didn't require much more than putting one foot in front of the other, so getting out along the water felt especially good.
And the birds - the puffins more specifically - while we didn't see any puffins, we saw a ton of other birds, and it made us think of the Benton and Linden.
When they were younger, they watched a show called Puffin Rock, and for a while puffins were a very big deal in our house. Hearing about them nesting along these cliffs brought all of that back. Of all the places we visited in Ireland, this was probably where I most wished we’d had the kids with us. I would have loved to see them make that connection.
Afterward, we had a lovely little lunch at the café, piled back into the rental car, and headed to Belfast for our reservation at Titanic Belfast.
The museum takes you through the story of the Titanic and its construction in Belfast’s shipyards, and also involves a lot of the historical elements we learned the day before during the Black Cab tour. It’s an impressive experience, although Beth and I both felt it was a long journey to get to the part that affected us most.
For us, that was the final stretch.
The accounts of the sinking, the distress calls, and then the memorial with the names of the passengers and crew were beautiful and sobering. The names wall reminded me of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. There’s something about seeing individual names that makes the scale of a tragedy sink in, no pun intended.
I think we both would have liked more time devoted to that part of the story. There was a lot of historical background leading up to it, and after the previous day’s black cab tour, we were already coming in with quite a bit to absorb.
I’m glad we went, and I thought it was worth the money. But if your Ireland itinerary is already packed and you’re trying to decide what to fit in, this is one I think you could pass on and read about at home. The black cab tour and the Gobbins would come first for me.
Once we finished at the museum, it was time to point the car south.
We had about a two-hour drive back to Dublin, where we returned the rental car and settled into our hotel. We had a nice dinner and got to bed pretty early, knowing we had our flight home the next day.
Our last full day had taken us from caves and coastal cliffs to the story of the Titanic, followed by one final drive through Ireland. Beth had found another winner in the Gobbins, and I was glad we’d saved room for it.
All that remained was getting home.
That turned out to be an excursion in itself. A fun one, as it happened—but still an excursion. Perhaps a story or post for another time.
