Page 175 - WDT MAGAZINE IRELAND ISSUE WINTER 2018

Right: Near Ballintoy, discover the Car-
rick-a-Rede rope bridge, sure to make
you catch your breath and think twice.
Rising over 100 feet above the Atlantic
Ocean, the bridge was first erected in
the mid-1700s and used by salmon
fishermen. If you’re brave enough to
open your eyes, in the distance, you’ll
see Rathlin and Scottish Island.

In Gaelic, the word for storyteller is seanchai, and it hands, revealing hints of the wood’s grain. “Every good
didn’t take us long to understand that we were in the storyteller has one,” he voiced in his thick Irish brogue.
presence of a master. Stops were no longer places on From the majestic ruins of Dunluce Castle to the
my travel itinerary that peeked my interest but a biog- blood-curdling passage across the Carrick-a-Rede
raphy of a country and of a people that Rodgers made Rope Bridge, from the Game of Thrones’ ominous fan-
it his life’s mission to tell. His constant Causeway com- tasy in Cushendun Caves to the King’s Road and the
panion, a walking stick made from the hazel tree, the 130-foot beech trees of The Dark Hedges, and finally to
tree of knowledge. At its pinnacle, a scarlet mallard’s the ethereal Giant’s Causeway, our trek along the North
head whose once bright hues of emerald green and Antrim coast of the Causeway Coastal Route revealed
scarlet had been worn down from the rest of weary our storyteller’s passion for his country and his craft.

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