nbjtours

Malin Head

Day Three

7 Miles 735 ft climbed

Ok so we have to admit to a bit of cheating here but today was originally not going to be on the bikes at all. However, having found ourselves at our overnight stop with the sun shining we thought that we had better make the best of it and from the most northerly inn in Ireland we cycled to its most northerly point

Malin Head is not named after the French for evil ( it is Irelands windiest and sunniest place) but is a corruption of the Gaelic Malainn meaning hillbrow

The big event of the day in this part of the world was the Donegal International Rally which takes over the town of Letterkenny and attracts young male petrolheads from all over the island of Ireland and is the biggest sporting event in the northern half of the country.

Interestingly speaking to a local spectator he said that being tucked away in the corner of the country partly hidden by Northern Ireland, Donegal is considered semi lawless as people here get on with life and don’t bother with the Garda. Sadly this attracts the young chaps who race their cars around town during the event.

Well as we were here it would have been rude not to go and see it so we left our campsite in Portrush by 8.30 and headed off to Ireland Passing via the NorthWest 200 motorcycle race track and some heavy rain showers we were happy that we were not riding this morning.

Irish tarmac rallying is big as there is only one race circuit in the country so speed demons rally rather than race aided by the fact that it is easy to close roads to do this here The atmosphere in the crowd was quite something as we all walked down to the stage and clambered into fields lining the corner. There must have been around 1000 people just here in this remote part of the world. The cars then entertained popping and banging their way round with the venerable Ford Escort still being the most numerous and spectacular. This was the 50th anniversary of the rally and they had a number of ex winners including Finnish world rally champion and MEP Ari Vatanen having a go in their old cars.

Having seen the stage we then walked back to enjoy lunch of frankfurters and baked beans in the camper expertly cooked by Nigel at Monica’s suggestion.

Luckily the weather had improved although remained cold with a strong northerly wind, so after replenishing the food cupboard in Derry, when we arrived at the most northerly inn in Ireland the choice was made to do a bit of cycling. This also reduced the cycle tomorrow morning before having to get a ferry.

Malin Head was windy and beautiful but the northerly wind had made the decision to wear full cycling tights and three layers a good one. Having wandered round the head we then decided to visit The Wee House of Malin as Nick was keen to see what it was all about.

The road down was steep at 25% and this rather pathetic edifice was all that greeted us surrounded by heras fencing. It was possibly a mistake to descend but following Chris’s lead Nick and I also made the climb back up successfully

The sea is so clear here and after another hearty meal of steak , potatoes and coleslaw washed down with Strawberries and Cream all five of us had a quick walk to the beach followed by a Guinness in the bustling pub. Chris and Nick staying in their B&B and the camper parked opposite.

It is almost the longest day of the year and with the sun in vision we were lucky enough to see it going down into the sea at 10.11 to end another successful day.