Possibly an unlikely New Year venue, but we do live in surreal times in AD 2021, the fact or fantasy of Covid has made travel exceptionally demanding and leaving the cocooned Island of Ireland is not for the faint hearted or even seasoned traveler currently.
So instead of the airport we headed directly to Belfast for a few days to celebrate “Hogmanay”, at the five star retreat Culloden Estate and Spa, allegedly “built for a bishop fit for a king”. The hotel has stunning views set high on the slopes of the Holywood Hills, overlooking Belfast Lough and the County Antrim Coastline, apart from that, the King could not have been that fussy, we were frankly overwhelmed by the price and underwhelmed with the service, the Bishop of Down would have been disappointed with the present regime and level of service.
However, location is great, reception and check-in pleasant enough and the hotel does offer an adequate leisure centre boasting a fine Spa.
The Culloden Estate & Spa
Wasting no time we set off to explore the small village of Holywood, quaint and quintessentially “British”, a mix of coffee cafes, boutiques, charity shops and of course home of Game of Thrones!
We headed into the city for a walking tour and lunch at the other 5* hotel The Merchant , which we had looked at but decided not to go with as was city centre !
As is our tradition no matter where we go in the world we try have to have an Indian meal Belfast was going to be no different! With two fine Indian restaurants on our doorstep we choose the mroe traditioanl Tulsi Indian in the centre of the village and were not disappointed –excellent naan bread.
Great value taxi back to the hotel, ( £5 ), for a nightcap in the bar, table service is extremely slow.
Day Two
Breakfast not the five star experience you would expect, despite a Covid induced time slot allocation, tables were not ready so delays dulled the experience.
Plenty of walking in the vicinity, turning out of the hotel onto the A2 towards Bangor, within a couple of hundred yards is Glen Road, a wealthy stretch of Belfast’s finest, leading down to the North Down Coastal path, 500m along the route you link with Circular road which completes the route back towards, the hotel. Exercise over, we headed out to the Giants Causeway.
Samuel Johnson may have been right when he said worth seeing but not worth going to see –but only being an hours drive away was worth the time-probably.
There is a large tourist information centre at the Causeway but they charge to go in so better go with the free entry option to the hotel for lunch.
At least a break from the weather. The other local major tourist spot, Bushmills distillery was closed, so instead of travelling over to there and onto Portrush, we headed West across the rugged landscape towards White Park Bay, and then to Carrick-a -Rede, a rope bridge spanning the dizzying gap over the North Atlantic from the mainland to a small island. Not for a windy day alas.
Trip back to Culloden just over an hour, from Ballycastle.
One of the advantages of the Culloden hotel is that it has a pub on site called the Cultra Inn, so with it being New Years eve we booked in there for food and drink.
The meal was a bit pub foody, but with limited choices due to lockdown shortages, made for a pleasant experience, and after wards we took up residency in the main hotel bar for the New Year celebrations.
A short trip without a plane in sight for New Year but made up for it with the company!
Indian Restaurant Belfast – Tulsi Indian Restaurant (tulsiholywood.com)
