In spite of the poor weather we were out today to tour the most famous of local attractions. The Giants Causeway. The site is managed by the National Trust, has a very elaborate new building for a visitors center with everything from tickets to buses precisely choreographed in true British style. The rain precluded any good photos (but that did not stop Nina trying) but we had an interesting tour of the site and, like others, marveled at the basalt columns that make up the causeway itself and adorn the local cliffs. We got well and truly wet during our walk.

The second stop on the days excursion was called Carrick-a-Rede or The Rope Bridge. Now it is simply a tourist attraction but in times past it was a piece of rickety infrastructure for a local salmon fishing enterprise. The bridge connects the mainland to a small island. On the island locals have a small building, a boom or crane, and a small boat. They would launch the boat to lay nets in a nearby channel and then haul the net up onto the island. In the building they would pack the caught salmon into boxes and carry them across the rope bridge and up the cliffs to be shipped to market. Reputedly this was the most profitable fishing operation on the Irish coast.

Modern Occupational Health and Safety folks would have had a fit.