We Might Not Be Back: The Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge and Dunluce Castle

I think I've said this before, but it merits saying again. Someday our kids are going to go on a normal vacation where they don’t risk their lives driving through mountains and walking up cliffs and they are really going to hate us. Worse yet they’ll find out that other parents take their kids to Disney and let them go on rides and eat overpriced cotton candy and ice cream, and then they’ll just probably run away from home. For the time being we’ll just have to take advantage of their ignorance and fit in as many crazy adventures as possible.
We were assured that the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge was “safe for kids” and that “kids love it.” Perhaps on a less blustery day and without pouring rain those would’ve been true statements. By the time we walked a half mile out to the bridge it was pouring and freezing cold. Since we’d already paid and walked all that way there was no turning back. Safety be damned! The steep wet metal steps leading down to the bridge had a railing that I probably could’ve slipped under and it was probably six inches over Lottie’s head. The bridge consists of two planks down the center and some woven rope under it, which could maybe keep a grown man from falling straight onto the rocks in the ocean below, and then the same weaving up to the rope handrails on the side. If we’d really wanted to test the safety I am certain we could’ve had Lottie squeeze through any of these holes. Luckily for her she was being relatively pleasant at that point so we didn’t try. Dan went first with Gabby and apparently held onto her for dear life, his own not hers. He told me afterwords he got to the middle and felt sick. The really unfortunate part is once you’re across you have to walk back. We all made without anything but minor psychological trauma.
In the afternoon we promised the girls a castle and so we headed to Dunluce, which is just past the town of Buschmills. The sun miraculously came out for our afternoon adventure. The girls were thrilled. There was a “treasure hunt” to find objects that had turned up in archeological digs near the castle. The also found the first of what would be many castle toilets, as in the ones they used in medieval times not the public toilets. Gabby was excited to learn everything she could from the audio tour about what each room was for and what castle life was like. Lottie began practice for her career as real estate agent by making us follow her into each room while she explained what it was. We walked around the castle and found another set of steep stone steps for the girls to climb. This time there were something like 120 each way I believe. This was without question their favorite activity so far.