Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge by myrrhluz
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Description
Carrick-a-Rede (rock in the road) Rope Bridge is a wire rope suspension bridge on the northern coast of County Antrim, in Northern Ireland. It connects the mainland to the tiny Carrick Island. The current bridge was erected in early 2008, but it is believed that salmon fishermen have been building bridges to the island for 350 years. It is no longer used by fishermen during salmon season (June until September), as there are very few salmon left. In the 1960s almost 300 salmon were caught per day but by 2002 only 300 were caught in the entire season. Today the bridge is mainly a tourist attraction. While there have been no instances of anyone falling off the bridge, there have been many cases of visitors having to be taken off the island by boat, because they couldn't face the walk back across the bridge. The site is owned by the National Trust. Carrick-a-Rede is an Area of Special Scientific Interest with unique geology, flora, and fauna. There are excellent views of Rathlin Island and Scotland, and caves which once were homes to boat builders and shelter during stormy weather. (Info from Wikipedia)
Leslie and I went to the bridge from the Giant's Causeway (about 15 minutes away by car). We weren't sure we were going to be able to go on the bridge as weather had gotten rather nasty with a hail shower as we were returning to our car at the Giant's Causeway parking lot. It was still looking pretty gray when we got there, so we had some soup at little cafe in the parking area. While we ate the sun came out! :) And went back in again. :( When we got ready to walk the trail to the bridge it began to sprinkle. By the time we reached the ticket booth it was raining in earnest. I told the ticket seller that I was afraid we has missed our window. He told me not to worry, there would be another one. I was not convinced but really wanted to see the bridge, so we went on. It was a fairly long trail to the bridge and it rained steadily the whole way. This image is from the trip back (a little out of chronological order to show a good view of the area) and as you can see the ticket seller wasn't feeding us a line, or if he was, reality decided to go along with it. We did get a window. The land across the water, to the right is Rathlin Island which is the northern most point of Northern Ireland. The land in the far distance is Scotland. I did not find the bridge particularly scary as it was quite sturdy. The chasm is 20m wide and 30m deep (about 66ft wide and 98ft deep).
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