Our last stop up on the North Atlantic Coast before heading for our hotel was Carrick-a-Rede. This is a place that is most famous for a rope bridge that is suspended over the Atlantic Ocean.
Here is some information about it from the National Trust website:
The famous Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge was first erected by salmon fishermen in 1755. Suspended almost 100ft above the Atlantic Ocean, the exhilarating crossing covers a chasm connecting to the rocky island of Carrick-a-Rede. The name, from the Gaelic ‘Carraig-a-Rade’, means ‘The Rock in the Road’, an obstacle for the migrating salmon as they search for the river in which they were born. Follow in the footsteps of the vanishing fishermen by uncovering the history of Carrick-a-Rede.
Centuries of tradition
Atlantic salmon were first fished at Carrick-a-Rede and Larrybane in 1620 but it wasn’t until 1755 that the first rope bridge between to the rocky island of Carrick-a-Rede was erected to reduce reliance on a boat to reach the island.
In the 19th century more than 80 fishers, 21 salmon fishers and 10 fish carriers were working in the parish of Ballintoy. Catches of up to 300 salmon a day were common until the 1960s.
Vanishing fish
Centuries of salmon fishing are now just a memory. Fishing pressure at sea and river pollution led to a decline in salmon and the last fish was caught at Carrick-a-Rede in 2002.
Alex ‘Achi’ Colgan, the last fisherman at Carrick-a-Rede, took over the licence when his uncle retired and worked there for over 30 years, leaving in 2002 when co-workers became hard to find. This fishery needs four men to work it and it’s hard, heavy work.
The hardest fishery
Now 80 years old, the Ballintoy man recalls: ‘It was hard work, It was the hardest salmon fishery on the coast. You’re stood on the edge of a cliff, it’s very deep water.
‘I suppose it was dangerous but we never had any accidents. When the weather was bad it was dangerous enough.’
No longer viable
Achi recalls that they would regularly catch up to 300 fish a day. But in the final season before closing, they only caught 250 in total from spring to autumn.
‘It wasn’t viable, there weren’t enough fish. The same applied to the whole coast. It was sad enough, but we couldn’t pay anybody to work. There were some years it didn’t pay at all.’
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/northern-ireland/carrick-a-rede/history-at-carrick-a-rede
Here is the first collection of images from our trip to Carrick-a-Rede:
I took a ton of pictures of this island.
The building in the back used to be part of a mining operation, now it is filled with bats.
I believe it is called Sheep Island.
For some reason I was surprised by how popular ice cream was in Ireland.
People actually had the nerve to ask me if I walked across the bridge. Why else would you go there?
Where the fishermen worked.
Still plenty more pictures from Carrick-a-Rede left to share!