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Atrium Coast - How much time is needed to comfortably experience these sites...

Posted by (St. Louis, MO) on

My family will be visiting the Atrium Coast in mid-November. We will only have 1.5 days on this leg of our trip. I was hoping to play a round of golf at Royal Portrush, AND visit Dunluce Castle, Old Bushmills Distilery tour, Giant's Causeway, and Carrick-a-Rede bridge. I don't want to be rushed, and I am beginning to think I may have to cut the golf. :(

I would appreciate your estimate of how much time is needed to comfortably experience these sites:

  • Dunlace Castle - how much time to view film & walk around castle?
  • Giants Caseway - how much time to view film, walk the entire cliff-top trail, and take shuttle back to visitors center?
  • Old Bushmills Distrillery - how much time to take tour & sample some whiskey?
  • Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge - how much time to walk to bridge, cross bridge to island, and walk back to parking lot.

I want to plan adequate time to enjoy each of these highlights, and if I have to sacrifice golf, I will...

As always, I really appreciate your help. Many thanks,
Ron

Posted by
8340 posts

Dunluce Castle : 1 hour is plenty of time
Giant’s Causeway: 2 hours
I didn’t go to the distillery or the bridge.

I can tell you that the Castle, the Distillery, and Giant’s Causeway are all within 10 minutes of each other by car and that makes seeing them all on the same afternoon a reasonable possibility.

Posted by
771 posts

Crossing Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge doesn't take very long to go over and back, but in 2017 they instituted a timed ticket system to control the crowds. Going in November, you may not have a problem, but here is the website, and you can decide what you think:

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/carrick-a-rede

Posted by
12172 posts

Rick's book says to start the morning by going to Carrick-a-Rede bridge and picking up a timed ticket, then come back at your scheduled time. Booking online is a good idea if your schedule is fixed. I stay fairly flexible so morning of works much better for me.

Posted by
29 posts

We were at the rope bridge this summer and when we got our timed ticket our time was about 1 1/2 hours later. But not sure you will have that issue in Nov. There were quite a few tour buses when we were there.
It takes a bit of time to walk down and back to the bridge itself from the parking lot. It is about a 15 minute walk.
We spent about 1.5 hours there (not including the time waiting for our assigned time) walking to the bridge, crossing the bridge, taking pics on the island, taking lots of scenic pics on the way back, etc....
Dunlace-less than an hour

Giants Causeways I would leave about 2 hours if you like walking around and exploring. If you walk one way it will take more time or if you want to watch the film in the visitors center.

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