Saturday Roadtrip | Walled Gardens & Wild Flowers

Last weekend my cousin Jenny and I took a little roadtrip around the Causeway Coastal Route around the north Antrim coast of Northern Ireland. The route has some really stunning views and its also a very very long drive, I think it took us around 7 hours and we didn't even go the whole way around! But roadtrips are basically my favourite thing ever so I was in my element.

We set off around 12, stopping for lunch at a lookout along the way, and then as we were driving along we saw signposts for Glenarm Castle Walled Gardens and Tearoom. Neither of us had ever been there before so we decided to stop and I'm so glad we did. The garden was beautiful, it was just filled with so much colour particularly from the thousands of wild flowers growing everywhere. I think that was my favourite thing about it. There were also apple and pear trees, water features, statues and a mount where you could look out over the garden. It was a really misty day and you could see the fog settling over the hills and trees in the distance which I think added to the atmosphere. I just wish my camera was able to capture it better! Jenny had brought her DSLR with her so we both wandered around for a while taking photos which was really relaxing, we both even managed to snap a picture of a butterfly that was sitting on one of the flowers.

After about an hour we heading off again and started noticing that there were quite a few cyclists on the road, then a few cyclists turned into a couple dozen cyclists and then eventually we were stuck behind hordes of cyclists before realising there was actually a huge cycle event around the coastal route. Just our luck! On the bright side, we were moving so slowly we really had time to appreciate the scenery haha.

Along the road we also stopped at Dunluce Castle, a medieval castle that sits basically on the very top of a cliff plunging down into the ocean. It's one of the more famous castle in Northern Ireland and is really very striking. We didn't go in this time as it was about to close but we took some photos from the cliffs overlooking it. It's been a really long time since I've visited properly so I desperately want to go back soon and have a proper look around.

And so we began the long journey home, though not before stopping for dinner at a restaurant on Portstewart promenade. Can we just take a moment to appreciate the sheer size of Jenny's filled Yorkshire pudding? Because it's pretty massive! One thing I love about the fact Jenny and I have grown up together is being able to reminisce about our childhoods and family, especially the ones who aren't around any more, it's nice to be able to sit and chat about everyone and just remember, which is what we spent a lot of time doing in the car and at dinner. Then, on the way home in the car we just had the music blaring, soundtrack for the day being 'Chandelier' by Sia, which is one of my favourite songs of the whole year, and also by far my favourite music video. I've probably watched it about 26 hundred thousand million times.

I know it's a bit late to say now but I hope you all had a lovely weekend yourselves!

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