Cave Hill Country Park loop

As befits a proper Northern Ireland trip, I start directly in Belfast with a different kind of city hike. A pretty green one - exactly how I imagined my start here. You might think that it wouldn't be particularly spectacular or idyllic directly above the capital, but that's not the case! Cave Hill Country Park is much more than a boring city park that happens to have a panoramic location over Belfast. Beautiful and well-marked hiking trails lead through forests and meadows and uphill in the middle of heathland into a lush green hilly landscape. The highlight is of course the view from the rather steep cliffs of the houses of Belfast that lie at your feet here. Caution: Under no circumstances go too close to the abyss! By the way, today I'm out and about with the wonderful Eimear - hiking guide for "Away a wee walk" (so if you're also interested in a guided tour, I can wholeheartedly recommend her ❤️). Of course, we first take a break at the highest point of the cliff and enjoy the view of the sparkling Irish Sea and the silhouettes of the Morne Mountains looming in the distance. Even though we are only 370 meters high, the view is sensational. As we descend the basalt mountain, we catch fantastic views of “Napoleon’s Nose” on the outskirts of Belfast, which can be easily seen with a touch of imagination. We also pass one of the five caves that exist here. When I ask Eimear whether it's worth taking a closer look, she just waves me off with a laugh - we might be disturbing a few teenagers who like to use the caves as a meeting place for their first date. 😉 We soon return to the starting point of our tour, Belfast Castle, via narrow and pretty paths. At the Victorian castle we stroll through the well-kept garden for a while and take in a final view of the Belfast skyline with its shipyards and harbor facilities. That was definitely a really nice start to my trip to Northern Ireland - now I can hardly wait to hike more of Northern Ireland's landscape. ☘️ -------------------------------------------------- -- And here's my detailed Northern Ireland blog article with lots more tips on accommodation and other cool locations in Northern Ireland that you shouldn't miss: https://www.couchfuge.de/nordirland-wandern-gehenswuerdigkeiten/

GPS signal was sometimes not so good. But we always stayed on the path. Beautiful round. Steep climb but worth the view.