Are you victims of this rainy irish summer (like me) but as a sunbeam comes out you run to the beach? Today I show you where to do that even in Belfast!
These are the pictures I took some days ago at a very nice place near the city: the Coastal Path tha from Holywood takes to Bangor. If you decide to pass some time in Belfast, this is a place you can’t miss if you want some relax and a good walk: it’s easy to reach, since from the city centre it’s just a short train trip and also it’s a path without particular difficulties; get ready to follow us in a magical walk among some marvellous irish landscapes, between green and sea.
We took a train from Belfast Central and got off at Helen’s Bay (we cut all the first part of the path for a question of time: in the morning I had to work), and then we walked all the way to the town of Bangor.
Helen’s Bay is one of the first stops just after passing Holywood; to reach the beach from the station you have to walk among the residential area and then to enter the “Chimera Wood”, a little park at the side of a golf field:
After a short walk inside the wood you arrive to the coast; the landscape is pretty characteristic: white beaches alternate with rock strips descending in the clear water.
On a side you can see Helen’s Bay beach:
While in front and on the other side you can find the classical irish rocks:
When I say clear waters I’m not exaggerating; look here:
One of the things that made me the happiest person on this planet was for sure the abundance of shells that completely covered the sand:
Of course, I couldn’t leave them there 😉
Between a treasures collection and another, we found the time to sit for some time on the sand: we took advantage of the ice cream truck to refresh while relaxing.
The coast between Crawfordsburn beach and Bangor is a continuous succession of different panorama, including the typical beaches sprinkled with black rocks covered in shells:
From time to time you can see one of those breathtaking landscapes that Ireland gifts to us, one of those that you can’t say where are water and ground ending and where the sky is starting:
Walking ahead to the zone of Bangor, we found some typical landscape with green cliffs straight on the sea; some of these are pretty romantic, as this couple proves:
From here to Bangor the path unknots between hills and sea; the two main colors of the Emerald Island are all here: the blue of the water and the sky and the green of the grass touch each other in every panorama around us.
To celebrate the sunny day and the wonderful landscape we decided to take some pictures even of us 😉
What every Ireland’s passionate knows is that you hardly forget this kind of landscapes:
After about an hour and a half walking among all these marvels we arrived in Bangor, nice town by the sea: beyond the turn you can already see the white houses and the small port with its red lighthouse.
Do you know that in 2007 Bangor has been voted as the best place where to live in Northern Ireland? This and something more in one of my next wrticles, where I’ll show you the pictures taken in this town during the visit to the Castle and to the Walled Garden 🙂
*It continues in the article “Bangor: from the Irish Sea to the Castle’s Walled Garden”*
A steep descent to the beginning of the cliff path will be rewarded by the feeling of walking on water as you begin to experience being on the edge of Northern Ireland. You will see and hear the waves crashing against the cliffs as they have done for thousands of years.
“…as you begin to experience being on the edge of Northern Ireland”: lovely and true 🙂 Thanks for the comment!