Thanks to Alison for this excellent blog of the tour they took to Northern Ireland.

Well, that’s another fantastic tour over with. This year we extended the tour by a day to cover any alteration to the racing timetable in case of bad weather, but the sun shone nearly every day … just what the racing fans wanted!

On Tuesday evening we all met in the bar at our usual hotel in Dumfries and then went in for dinner. The following morning after breakfast we headed off to Cairnryan for our ferry over to Belfast. A few people rode the coast road to the hotel but the majority followed us by the direct route, wanting to get settled in and unpacked for their 5 night stay in one of our favourite hotels just outside the city of Derry.

On Thursday morning we rode over to the Dunlop Memorial Gardens at Ballymoney and had coffee at Joey’s Bar. We then headed for Cushendun on the Antrim coast in time for a lunch break. Everyone decided to do the Tor Head road … this is quite a narrow coast road where you get fantastic views over to the Mull of Kintyre on Scotland’s west coast. The road is quite technical with a couple of hairpin bends which everyone successfully navigated – definitely not a road for novices!! Next stop was for an ice-cream at Ballintoy Harbour before riding part of the NW200 road race circuit from Portrush through to Portstewart and Coleraine. For those that wanted, we dropped them off at the Magic Roundabout (Ballysally roundabout) so they could watch the Thursday evening racing.
On Friday we had intended going to Malin Head, Southern Ireland’s most northerly point. Unfortunately the storm troopers were there and the local roads were closed – the new Star Wars movie was being filmed! We therefore decided to go to Slieve League in the very west of Donegal … fantastic biking roads and breath-taking views out over the Wild Atlantic Coast. Could have stayed there all day as it was so warm and sunny and such a relaxing place to be … should have taken a picnic! We then cut through the Glenveagh National Park through to Letterkenny and Londonderry and, although it was quite a high mileage day, everyone said it was well worth the effort and they wouldn’t have wanted to miss such spectacular scenery.

Saturday was race day and all but a few rode through to Coleraine and took up position to see the racing. Most parked where we had dropped them off on the Thursday evening, so they were on the outside of the circuit in case they wanted to get back to the hotel early. A few of us went to Joey’s Bar again to watch the first couple of races on their big screen. We had lunch in Bushmills Distillery, then wound our way through the back roads to Coleraine and followed the A2 to the lovely little seaside village of Downhill where we picked up a side road which went up, up and up, over the hills to a fantastic viewing point looking out over County Donegal and Lough Foyle.
Colin Dunlop (Joey’s cousin’s son) is sponsoring my nephew Callum Laidlaw this year and it was good to know that Callum had competed in a couple of races before the racing was suspended when a young rider was killed. Our thoughts are with Malachi Mitchell-Thomas’s family at this sad time.

On Sunday it was a bit cloudy and breezy so we decided to have an easy day and headed for the Giant’s Causeway and Carrickarade where it was sheltered and warm. This is a ‘must do’ if it’s your first visit to Northern Ireland – the rock formation at the Giant’s Causeway has to be seen to be believed and, of course, you’ve just got to get your certificate for braving the rope bridge! We rode back to the hotel via Portrush and Coleraine, so can now say that we’ve ridden the whole circuit (albeit in two halves and going the wrong way!)

Monday morning saw say goodbye to Mark, one of our regular Southern Irelands customers, before heading back to Belfast for the ferry and a calm and peaceful crossing to Cairnryan and home.