Photos

Northern Ireland holds some of the most beautiful scenery on the entire island of Ireland, and much of it is found in just one county, County Antrim. Attractions include the Giant's Causeway, Dunluce Castle, Carrick-a-rede rope bridge, and the Nine Glens of Antrim. This little gem, Glenariff, is known as the "Queen of the Glens" and is the most popular of the Nine Glens.

There are several trails that branch off from the car park of the Glenariff forest park, but the most popular by fall is the waterfalls trail, which runs for two or three miles down to the river and back. Unbeknownst to me, it's pretty steep, and you have to hike about 3/4 of a mile to the first waterfall. But the surrounding forest is incredibly beautiful and more than makes up for the steepness of the hike.

This waterfall is the first major one along the path. There are supposedly others, but we were really pressed for time to get to Belfast to catch our flight to Paris, so we had to run down to this waterfall and then run back up to the top. It was a really good workout.

I wish this picture conveyed the power of this waterfall. My lens kept getting sprayed even from this distance--I had to clone out a couple small droplets. I loved the forests of England and Scotland, but for sheer loveliness, I don't think we saw anything prettier than Ireland, and the most beautiful forest we saw in Ireland was this incredible forest at Glenariff.

Update: Several people have commented on the white balance here. I used the "Daylight" setting, so given that the scene was cloudy, I didn't use too yellow a white balance. What I think you're seeing is the color of the water. It really was the yellow-brown color that you see. It's actually fairly common after a rainstorm, and it had rained most of the morning.