One of the Best Driving Roads in the World?? Antrim Coast Rd

[riceboyni]

Hi guys,

Im pretty new around here but thought as my first post why not share a video.. My better half recently bought me a camcorder for my birthday and I am trying to learn the ropes of creating and editing videos.

After a nice week long break along the North Coast of the Emerald Isle, armed with my camcorder and suction mount, I thought I would take the opportunity to make a video of one of the best roads in the country; some might even go as far as saying one of the best roads in the world. Absolutely love this road.

Have a looky:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdkNO8LUZMk

My lame effort to edit the video meant some of the quality was lost (didn’t help I hadn’t it set to record in HD to start with) but you get the idea. I am hoping over the coming months I will do a few more in the North and South of Ireland including Dingle pass and the Gap of Dunloe. Any suggestions from you tech/media wizards into editing software and general camcorder settings I am all ears.

Thanks for looking

Andrew

[Trefy5]

I liked that and very useful
Well done, Andrew
Likely to be over there next Autumn and chances are i'll be in the Larne area so good to know about that

[pharmvrs]

Tis a great video!! I've had a few trips up to the north coast (lived in norn iron for my first 19 years before leaving for uni) and the roads are great and not too busy either........ Trouble is now living in notts the roads are not as breathtaking and they are much much more congested

Keep up the good work but not too good otherwise we'll have take out shares in stenaline for all the day trippers over for a blast in the morning and back home on the late ferry......

[riceboyni]

Trefy5 said:

I liked that and very useful
Well done, Andrew
Likely to be over there next Autumn and chances are i'll be in the Larne area so good to know about that

Thanks Trefy Couldn't recommend it enough, start in Larne and keep going the whole way to Londonderry, the whole drive is stunning (apart from Portrush but you can't avoid it ).

I will try within the next few weeks to take one of the whole route, maybe start in Belfast and finish in Londonderry. A few people may find it helpful to plan their trips

pharmvrs said:

Tis a great video!! I've had a few trips up to the north coast (lived in norn iron for my first 19 years before leaving for uni) and the roads are great and not too busy either........ Trouble is now living in notts the roads are not as breathtaking and they are much much more congested

Keep up the good work but not too good otherwise we'll have take out shares in stenaline for all the day trippers over for a blast in the morning and back home on the late ferry......

Thank you How could you ever leave pharmvrs? What part did you grow up in? You will know the roads over here too, if you can think of any that people would find interesting shout and i will go and film them too Stena i think have a few good deals going at the moment also

[pharmvrs]

If you have not done Glenshane pass it might be worth a trip, nice open flowing road for the most part but beware snow is common....

I'd leave larne, head for toome, londonderry, portrush, ballycastle then back towards larne via the coast road (170 mile trip taking 4.5 hours according to google)

I'm a Aughnacloy man (co. tyrone) originally and moved to notts for work.

[mike80]

Nice video. Recognise some of the roads as stages on Rally Northern Ireland.

[riceboyni]

pharmvrs said:

If you have not done Glenshane pass it might be worth a trip, nice open flowing road for the most part but beware snow is common....

I'd leave larne, head for toome, londonderry, portrush, ballycastle then back towards larne via the coast road (170 mile trip taking 4.5 hours according to google)

I'm a Aughnacloy man (co. tyrone) originally and moved to notts for work.

Have done the Glenshane many times, used to be an HGV driver so was never off the road Good idea for a video though

I know Aughnacloy well too, was never out of the fuelling place there

mike80 said:

Nice video. Recognise some of the roads as stages on Rally Northern Ireland.

Thank you Torr head stage is in this video. Might be worthwhile videoing the Glendun and Cairncastle stages too. Glendun is a very nice drive indeedy.

[Red Devil]

riceboyni said:

Have a looky:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdkNO8LUZMk

Went over with a group from our club in 2009 and did it the other way from Larne to the Giants Causeway via Torr Head.






From there we headed south to Cookstown, west to Omagh, along the B4 to Kesh, across Boa Island in Lough Erne to Belleek, then over the border into Eire. Sligo and the N59 to Achill Island.






Then back on the N59 to Westport and Galway. The return route was Roscommon, Longford, Cavan, Clones, Monaghan, Armagh, and Belfast (where I incurred the wrath of PSNI's finest and thereby nearly missed the Larne ferry!).

Four days of superb driving, good food, and excellent craic.

The road between Butlersbridge and Clones is interesting as it changes its identity several times (N54/A3/N54/A3/N54) over a stretch of 8 miles where the NI/Eire border looks like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. One minute the speed limit in in kmh, the next it's in mph!

[riceboyni]

Fantastic! Thanks very much for sharing some fantastic pictures you have there, hope you had a great time. Can i ask what happened with the PSNI?

[Red Devil]

riceboyni said:

Fantastic! Thanks very much for sharing some fantastic pictures you have there, hope you had a great time. Can i ask what happened with the PSNI?

It was a great trip. I took over 250 pictures during the 4 days.

Approaching J2 of the M1 the two guys in front of me were in Lane 1 and I was gaining on them in Lane 2. I assumed we would be using the Westlink/M2/A8 to get to Larne so I thought nothing of it, when I almost got caught out as they indicated to take the slip road. I had no idea why but I had to react a bit quicker than I would have liked in order to follow them down the off ramp.

Half way down a marked car pulls alongside, down comes their passenger window, and I'm instructed to follow them. Of course its just my luck that, despite my entreaties, they decide to take me in the opposite direction to the rest of the group!
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Belfast&hl=en&...

Apparently they felt my manoeuvre was "too sudden and a danger to other road users". As the nearest car was almost 50 yards behind me and they were behind that one I thought they were exaggerating somewhat but I wasn't about to argue the point. I just explained why I had done what I did (concerned at getting detached from the group and lost in an unfamiliar city - which was totally true).

After detaining me for nearly 20 minutes while one crawled all over the car and the other checked me out and gave me an in depth lecture they let me go. He made it clear that the only reason he wasn't writing me up was that that I was from England and had passed the attitude test.

Just as well I didn't mention that if they thought my exit was unacceptable they should come over to my side of the water and experience the general standard on the M25 every day.

[Hooli]

I've ridden that coast road, it is brilliant.

[riceboyni]

Red Devil said:

It was a great trip. I took over 250 pictures during the 4 days.

Approaching J2 of the M1 the two guys in front of me were in Lane 1 and I was gaining on them in Lane 2. I assumed we would be using the Westlink/M2/A8 to get to Larne so I thought nothing of it, when I almost got caught out as they indicated to take the slip road. I had no idea why but I had to react a bit quicker than I would have liked in order to follow them down the off ramp.

Half way down a marked car pulls alongside, down comes their passenger window, and I'm instructed to follow them. Of course its just my luck that, despite my entreaties, they decide to take me in the opposite direction to the rest of the group!
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Belfast&hl=en&...

Apparently they felt my manoeuvre was "too sudden and a danger to other road users". As the nearest car was almost 50 yards behind me and they were behind that one I thought they were exaggerating somewhat but I wasn't about to argue the point. I just explained why I had done what I did (concerned at getting detached from the group and lost in an unfamiliar city - which was totally true).

After detaining me for nearly 20 minutes while one crawled all over the car and the other checked me out and gave me an in depth lecture they let me go. He made it clear that the only reason he wasn't writing me up was that that I was from England and had passed the attitude test.

Just as well I didn't mention that if they thought my exit was unacceptable they should come over to my side of the water and experience the general standard on the M25 every day.

Not good at all buddy. They must have been a little bored that day. The PSNI can get major attitude at time and, generally, are more than pleasant once you have passed the attitude test

I used to drive HGV's across England and one thing i certainly do not miss is the M25 . However, I personally think the driving standard on the M50 in Dublin is much worse the only positive thing there is not half as much traffic .

[riceboyni]

Just thought i would post a quick video of my dashcam setup, it may be of help to some people wanting to do the same thing...

Dashcam Setup

thanks for looking

[kazino]

Love those roads, was lucky enough to be there a few years back for a few days and rented an alfa romeo, what great roads, friendly people and beautiful scenery.

[soda]

riceboyni said:

Just thought i would post a quick video of my dashcam setup, it may be of help to some people wanting to do the same thing...

Dashcam Setup

thanks for looking

Been meaning to do something similar, we're blessed with some gems of roads over here

Thanks to that I now want to drive up the coast, too many dawdlers about at this time of day though.

Some great stretches of road South of Belfast too, off the top of my head -

Ballynahinch through Spa towards Castlewellan.
Newcastle around to Rostrevor if you get a quiet day
Ards peninsula

Single lane nirvana can be found off many roads between Draperstown and Strabane.

Some fantastic roads over the border, always love Belcoo heading to Sligo.
A couple of other favourites have already been filmed better than I could manage

Knockalla - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvmzo_RKc9U
Molls gap - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kli07_qcaOM