September 22, Tuesday, late afternoon.

Dunluce Castle—Around path down to the cave—Into the Castle and museum—To White Rocks Beach—Dunluce Castle photos from the tour bus stop

Dunluce Castle ruins are worth a stop on the north coast of Northern Ireland.

At first we weren’t sure whether or not to pay to go into the castle, especially since it could be seen from a nearby path that wound partway around the grounds.
From what we could see from the path we were intrigued enough to pay to go in.
The castle shield.
A drawing of how Dunluce Town and the castle may have looked in the 17th century. The current castle ruins.
Much of the castle was built of the same hexagonal basalt rocks found in Giant’s Causeway just to the east. Among other things the small on-site museum has this Celtic flag.For me, the best thing about going into the castle wasn’t the well-kept ruins but the views, like this one looking down on where we had been walking earlier.
This view of the sea mist settling down on the countryside was west, looking up. The view of the white cliffs to the west was especially spectacular, and had us wondering if there was a beach anywhere nearby and how could we get down to it after we left the castle.
Google maps showed an access point at White Rocks Beach. The route down to the beach was strewn with daisies.
The beach was edged with white rock cliffs; up close they turned out to be weathered flint.
Two exposed pieces of flint.
After a long walk along the beach we were ready to head back.
Earlier we had noticed a series of tour buses all stopping at this pull-out where they disgorged masses of passengers for a quick photo-shoot of Dunluce Castle. Of course this means hundreds of people all with the same photos.
Or maybe not. The artist who did this etching way back when must have stood in the same spot as the bus passengers.
Here are our two views from the bus pull-out. This one is Al’s.
And this one is mine.

• More of Nancy Merrill’s Photo a Week Challenge: Ruins
• More on our 2015 trip to Ireland.