The Castle on the Cliffs — Dunluce Castle
Dunluce Castle…perched precariously on the edge of the cliffs of the Antrim coast in Northern Ireland. There is a famous story (which may or may not be true but is probably a myth) that the family residing there in the 1600’s abandoned the castle because one night, the kitchen section along with it’s staff fell off into the sea below. The castle has a long history of being fought over by the Scottish, Irish, and English. It was the Scots that won out in the end until the Irish rebellion in the mid 1600’s where the town surrounding the castle was burnt to the ground and thus the area was abandoned completely. The place was supposedly very cosmopolitan for the times, which is what archaeologists are finding now as they recover pieces of the town through their investigations.
Besides the lengthy rich history, which I very much abridged above, this place is just SO cool! I am a sucker for old forts and castles, especially ones that come packaged with caves underneath. As I mentioned here before, Dunluce is about halfway between Portrush and Bushmills. It took us about an hour to walk here and you do have to pay to get in. It’s only five pounds so it’s perfect for the budget explorer because you could spend all day here on that little bit of money. Yes, it is a popular tourist attraction, but this one is worth seeing. If you go mid-week (not during July/August) and it’s raining a bit, the castle will be only yours for the taking! There are three different areas to check out.
1. The Castle.
After you pay your fee, there is a bridge to cross to enter the castle. Technically you are already in and there are ruins and rooms before you get to the bridge, but the really cool part is once you cross it. It’s hard to imagine a lavish living here among the ruins. We had to duck under cover to wait out a short rain shower and perhaps this is why the castle seemed particularly dreary and cold. The sun came out after and we only had small mistings after that! It’s quite impressive really, how intact the castle is today. The windows are the most notable as you can see in the images below. You can sidle up to the edges once inside and glance down at the sheer drop-off, although I would not advise this if you are afraid of heights. Also, PLEASE do not take any risky poses here for photos. There are enough people dying just to get a cool hair raising photo in the world, especially the most recent girl in Australia. No amount of likes on social media is worth dying for.
From across the bridge the castle doesn’t seem that big, but once inside there are so many little rooms, corners, twists and turns, it becomes endless. There’s a tower that you can climb the steps up to and look over the edge if you haven’t gotten enough of those stomach butterflies already.
There was an engagement session going on here while we were exploring, what a great location for that!
2. Mermaid’s Cave
Once you have your fill of the castle itself, the best part is underneath it! Not advisable for those who do not want to get dirty and are not wearing proper footwear like hiking boots. For photographers, bring a tripod to get your long exposure on! There’s a cave, dubbed Mermaid’s cave, below the castle and you get there by heading out back across the bridge and out of the ruins. There’s a green staircase heading down to the bottom of the steep hill, pictured second below. In the first photo below, you can see the entrance to the cave, it’s right before the path/stairs on the left. Those lead to an outlook where you can take some great shots of the white cliffs to the left and relax for a bit from all the climbing and monkeying around. I went for a film-like processing on these. It was midday so it was either black and white or something new I wanted to try. What do you think? (all critiques accepted)
This is the cave below. Don’t be afraid to crank up the ISO if you have a camera that performs well in low light. If you don’t, no worries, that is what the tripod is for! This place is an excellent practicing ground for HDR or long exposure techniques, or a combination of the two. It is slippery to get down here and if you are less than agile, the best way might be to go down on your bum. The Antrim coast is full of these sea caves. Photographer Andy McInroy is a great resource if you want to see more!
Always keep in mind the tides as well. Be careful if you are going during high tide. I think we got here just before the tide started to come in so this is what it looks like when still low.
There is also a sign that tells you not to go into the cave…Weeellll the way photographers feel about signs is like how Americans feel about nutrition labels on candy. It’s just there to tell you how bad the thing you are about to eat is for you, but you eat it anyways. 😀 I would never suggest to anyone to disrespect any place or break any rules. We are only slightly bending here…I think the people in this photo below would agree with me.
The third area was my favorite, from a photography composition standpoint.
3. On the Rocks Below
This is the featured image and my favorite from this place! I know you see this shot a lot when you research this place, yes it’s overdone, but there’s no way I was leaving without it! Sometimes you just have to get that classic shot and then go in search of your original compositions. One thing I do want to say is that unless you make an effort to copy someone’s composition exactly, the photo that you take and edit will always be unique because you are unique and no two people are going to take the same photo, even if they are side by side.
To get to this place, you have to do some rock scrambling and grass slipping so make sure you are wearing some form of sturdy and durable shoe. It’s easier to get back up than down! In the film-esque shot above that shows the stairs that lead down to the Mermaid Cave, you can see a grassy-area to the right. Where the stairs start to curve is where you hop the railing. You will see a slim worn grassy path leading down the hill to the rocky shore below. Scramble over rocks for a bit until you get all the way to the right and you can climb over the rocks until you see this view below.
Again, please watch the tides! The tide was coming in as we went here after the cave and you do not want to be a. soaked or b. caught on these rocks.
Ok, now that I’ve got my safety tip out of the way, you can’t miss this place! Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. I don’t know how many times I can say amazing and I’m starting to feel like a broken record. Time to pull out the thesaurus!
This is a land of marvels. This place is intimidating, calming, scary, beautiful, powerful, and wonderful all at the same time. Once on these rocks, the waves crash before you and huge amounts of sea sprays up about six feet (and it’s not even high tide!). Looking out at the sea makes you wonder how many ships were wrecked trying to land here or by accident, if any. There actually was a ship that was wrecked along the coast nearby called the Girona and it was rumored that one of the Scottish clansmen brought the canons up to Dunluce Castle.
So to conclude, don’t miss this place, and definitely don’t just visit the castle. Be adventurous and get your photography butt down to these rocks! I’ll leave you with a short poem that English nonsense poet Edward Lear wrote about Dunluce…
There was an old man of Dunluce,
Who went out to sea on a goose:
When he’d gone out a mile,
he observ’d with a smile,
“It is time to return to Dunluce.”
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Originally published at thingsthatkeepyoudreaming.com on October 7, 2015.
