The Gobbins

The Gobbins Cliff Walk is a place I had seen on line a few months back.  Due to winter weather conditions along the Northern Irish coast it is only open for a few good months a year. Intrigued, I signed up for their email notification when to book tickets.  I double checked with Joe & Charlotte to be sure it was something that may interest them, and it did.  It’s so much more than a guided 2.5-hour cliff walk.   “….a good level of fitness is needed. You must be fit enough to climb 50 flights of stairs and walk a very steep 1 in 5 gradient.”

The original Gobbins Path opened in 1902, but was abandoned in the 1960’s.  Then in 2015, an investment of over £7.5 million brought the path back to life as the spectacular tourist attraction it is today with many improvements.  

We gathered at the visitor center at our appointed time.  After a brief safety talk, physical warnings that this ‘walk’ may not be suitable for everyone were bused to the location where we would start our adventure. Once there, the access road that would take us to the start of the walk was one we had to walk down – a very steep long road. My knee was not happy with this! Come to learn, the walk would not be a loop, but one way in and one way out, and damn, back up that same steep long road.  The cliff walk itself was enough of a challenge for this old girl – the access road was homicidal.   

With our safety helmets on we walked rugged staircases carved into the cliff face, along narrow & uneven paths &  Different style bridges that hug the cliff face. We walked into tunnels and caves once used as hiding places for smugglers and watched raucous birds as they flew around and returned to their nests which looked like they were glued to the sides of the cliffs.  I was hoping to see puffins but there were none out and about on this day. It was a spectacular adventure.  One not for the faint of heart, or weak of knee.  They should sell T-Shirts that say, “I survived the Gobbins Walk”.  
 















PHOTO ALBUM