BELFAST to ARMOY
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I have walked several times to Murlough Bay from Ballycastle via the Grey Man's Path at Fair Head, many years ago now, as the joints are more reluctant at steep rock climbs. The route is dangerous in places and you should be equipped with good footwear, rainwear and a mobile phone in case of difficulties.
I follow the beach from Ballycastle to what is mistakingly known as Marconi's cottage (now a glass eyesore) then on past the old coal mines to the end of the road. From here on it's onto a track or pad known as the Grey Man's Path to Fair Head, the path finally ascends through a ravine known as the Grey Man's Gulley or McAnulty's Hall Door and onto the plateau above. The impressive vertical dolerite columns are surrounded by scree slopes which go down to the waters edge where there are the boulders the size of small houses.Now there is a story about the Grey Man's Path and a Mary McAnulty who used it frequently.
The path from McAnulty's Hall Door crosses a moorland environment with some exceptional viewpoints. The linear scoring on the exposures of smooth glaciated rock reveal the source of this landscape. As the ice retreated some 10,000 years ago it formed the topography that we see today in the Glens of Antrim. Murlough Bay is well known for its flora, fauna and geology, a curved limestone cliff protects one of the few remaining old 'natural' temperate woodlands in Ireland. Birch, Rowan and Hazel thrive in a micro-climate which contrasts with the barren moor land plateau above.
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ROPE BRIDGE to DERRY
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