Thursday, 26 April 2018

The 9 Glens of Antrim. Glenariff Forest Park

Coming back on our lovely short trip to Co Antrim during the Easter break (see my previous post about it here), I wanted to write a special post about the Glens of Antrim, designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) back in 1988.

The area comprises 9 glens –or valleys– that radiate from the Antrim Plateau to the coast.

Even their names are special! here is the list:

GLENARM - Glen of the army.
GLENCLOY - Glen of the dykes.
GLENARIFF - Glen of the arable land.
GLENBALLYEMON - Edwardstown Glen.
GLENAAN - Glen of the little fords.
GLENCORP -  Glen of the dead.
GLENDUN - Brown Glen.
GLENSHESK - Glen of the sedges (reeds).
GLENTAISIE - Named after Taisie, princess of Rathlin island.
(info extracted from www.discovernorthernireland.com) 


It has been an impossible task for me to find a good map that would clearly show just the nine Glens of Antrim with their names and exact locations. The best I could find is the map below, from www.ireland.com, showing the glens (red names) and their approximate locations in the area:



I know...difficult to read! You could enlarge the picture if you want to locate all of them.

In this last visit, we only had time to visit the spectacular Glenariff Forest Park (Glenariff is also known as The Queen of the Glens) and it offers so much to hikers of all levels, professional and amateur photographers, nature lovers, families with or without pets and everybody else! ;-D.




There are several trails you can follow from the car park of the Forest Park... we decided to follow the Waterfall Walk, very popular, that was opened to the public over 80 years ago! 



It's an easy to follow path, with stunning views of the river gorge and, of course, the waterfalls.... 








The kids had an amazing time along the walk, running up and down, taking pictures and enjoying the views




After the fantastic walk and the two or three million pictures we took, we had our sandwiches at one of the few picnic tables that can be found in the park. Feels gooood to have lunch in such an amazing place... even if it was only ham sandwiches, salad and some fruit!


So now that the weather is starting to give us a break and the sun shines... from time to time, do not hesitate to organise a trip to Co Antrim if you can, because I am sure all the family will enjoy it ;-)





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