Page 199 - WDT MAGAZINE IRELAND ISSUE WINTER 2018

We had no grounds on which to challenge him, so we
left him at the ticket window.
When our turn came to step out onto the bridge I
experienced a different tourist sensation: fright. I was
lined up behind Kathie, who trailed a line of tourists.
We stepped out onto the bridge. Once we were dan-
gling over the gap we sensed the ever-present wind,
which conspired with the many bodies to make the
bridge sway. It took all my powers of concentration to
take one step at a time and not stare down at the Irish
Sea churning 100 feet beneath the soles of my feet. It
took probably a minute to cross the 66-foot gap, but
it felt like an hour, and it took several minutes to catch
my breath once I was on the other side.
There isn’t much to do on the islet of Carrick-a-
Rede; it’s not level and not very large – neither long
enough nor wide enough to play a decent game of
soccer. I had the continual feeling I was going to slide
off the rock and down the sheer cliff into the hostile
surf and found this sense of danger tantalizing. I
walked to the cliff edge to study the razorbills soaring
through the sea mist just over an arm’s length away; I
leaned over a railing to photograph kittiwakes nesting
in the cliff face. A gangway clings to the cliffside and
leads to the water’s edge where kayaks are moored.
Apparently, some visitors to Carrick-a-Rede can’t
stomach the return trek over the bridge and are re-
moved by boat. Fortunately, Kathie and I did not suffer
that disgrace.
We stayed atop the crag for a while, then sum-
moned the courage to return to the main shore.
Again we queued up in a line of tourists, and this time
I focused on the person in front of me and forced
myself not to look down. Vincent didn’t exactly give
us a hero’s welcome when we got back to the shore. I
guess he’d seen this show before.
We got back on the road and about nine miles later
we reached one of the most fabled sights on Ireland’s
north coast, the Giant’s Causeway, a curious forma-
tion of rock pillars jutting skyward on the water’s
edge. A legend says the columns are the remains of
a causeway built by the giant, Fionn mac Cumhaill, to
cross the Irish Sea to Scotland. This legend has legs

You have to summon up all your
nerve to cross the rope bridge to Car-
rick-a-Rede, a craggy islet that juts up
from the Irish Sea along the County
Antrim coast. Don’t look down.
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