Looking back on my records the last time that I visted Northern Ireland was 2012 and then that was only Belfast city centre having travelled by train from Dublin with the 'cheeky boys', the previous trips in 2007 and 2010 with Heather saw us travelling a little further afield as we had a car.

This trip with my mum was to be her first ever trip to Northern Ireland and fortunately we really did luck into some smashing weather to enjoy not only the coastal areas but also some of the scenic inland bits too.

Our flight over to Belfast City Airport from Birmingham was with Flybe on BE402 the 08.30 departure that had us on the ground, hire car collected and leaving the airport by 10.00. Belfast City Airport is quite a nice little facility and much more handy than the International Airport located miles from Belfast itself.

We first headed to Tandragee hoping to visit Tayto Castle and the Irish favourite crisp manufacturer for a tour of the facilities - despite the information on the website it turned out that it was by appointment only and they only did one tour on a Friday and we had missed that too by 15 minutes . . . . . . not the best start to the trip especially as Tandragee did not have a huge amount to offer other than a few coffee and charity shops.

After a quick re-plan and a map consultation we headed through the Mourne Mountains and towards the coast. The drive was reallty nice and the scenery was lovely too. Our first stop on the coast was Annalong with its picturesque harbour, ancient cornmill and a fairly quiet stoney beach. Travelling north we continued along the coast to Newcastle a sizeable and pleasant seaside town that made for a great stop to enjoy some gelato (there seems to be a huge amount of Italian style ice cream shops in NI) and a walk along the promenade. It certainly did not seem as tacky as some other UK seaside resorts that I have visited and there was free parking available too.

Things were certainly looking up on the trip and my mum really was taken with Northern Ireland . . . . so off to Carrickfergus we headed to check into our hotel for a two night stay north of Belfast.

Carrickfergus is a good base for touring Northern Ireland, it has direct access to the Causeway Coastal Route, a fabulous drive that takes you along the coast - possibly unsurprising given the name of the route - to the Giant's Causeway which was the plan for the Saturday. Carrickfergus also has a decent range of bars, restaurants and things to see as well and our accomodation, at Dobbins Inn, was apparently one of the first hotels in Ireland dating back over 800 years. The hotel was not too bad, the rooms were a little bit dated, however there appeared to be a lot of renovation work ongoing as well. It was a shame that just outside the window in my room also seemed to be much favoured by the local pigeons that gave me a 04.00 alarm call each morning. The room rate of £65 included breakfast was reasonable value and there was free parking available in the harbour area that was nearby too.

Saturday morning saw us setting off north along the Causeway Coastal Route, with not too much of a plan other than to hopefully reach the Giant's Causeway and Bushmills Whiskey Distillery by the end of the day. If we saw something that looked good or took our fancy we would stop and see what was there.

The first stop was in Whitehead only for the reason that I spotted a sign for a railway museum. We were a little bit too early to have a proper look around the site which is the home to the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland, but the station looked like a nice facility. Carrying on up the coast we stopped at Carnlough, north of Larne, for a morning coffee.

Carnlough would be familiar to those who enjoy the Game of Thrones TV series as the attractive harbour featured in the show as the waterside entrance to Braavos, when we get to Series 6, Episode 7 (The Broken Man) we might well recognise it too. There also used to be a narrow gauge mineral railway running to the harbour from the nearby quarry. The trackbed is now a two mile walk to the Cranny Falls and it was interesting to see a photograph of the steam locomotive crossing the main street on a bridge (see the photos that accompany this blog for 'then' and 'now' images) adjacent to the Town Hall.

The next stop was Ballycastle, the stopping off point for people wishing to visit Rathlin Island, but also a place where a good friend of mine grew up. It was nice to have fish and chips by the sea and have a wander around the town before carrying on up the coast to Ballintoy.

Ballintoy harbour was also a Game of Thrones filming location (a.k.a. The Iron Islands) and was a by chance sort of stop having just followed the signs off the coastal route. What a great stop it was too and it was the sort of place where you could just sit and watch the sea for hours - I think my mum would still be there if I had not got her back to the car.

Travelling further north we arrived at the Giant's Causeway and it seemed a bit like Piccadilly Circus and a shock to the system after the quieter places we had previously visited. People were arriving by the bus load at three in the afternoon, that said there were no queues to pay the entrance fee (National Trust members go free) before walking down the hill to the causeway itself. There are a few stories as to the building of the causeway . . . if you want to believe the stories that is, but in reality they are basalt columns (around 40,000 of them) from an ancient volcanic fissure eruption 50-60 million years ago. As impressive as the Giant's Causeway is it was far too busy and with a million people a year visiting this natural attraction it would maybe benefit from limiting visitor numbers.

There was enough time for a quick stop at The Bushmills Distillery visitor centre and shop but sadly we were not quite in time for the last tour of the day so we made do with ice cream in the attractive town centre.

Once back in Carrickfergus we made our way to The Swift restaurant where we had made a reservation and enjoyed a fabulous evening meal. The service was good, the food was tasty, and overall a nice way to round off our stay in Carrickfergus.

We were hoping to fit in two different attractions of the Sunday before the afternoon flight back to Birmingham; the first would be TITANIC in the rejuvinated shipyard area of Belfast and the second would have been the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum. We never did make it to the latter as the visit to TITANIC took us over three hours and there simply would not have been enough time to really make the most of the Folk and Transport Museum before dashing to the airport.

The TITANIC attraction tells the story of Belfast, shipbuilding in the Harland and Wolff yard and of the course that of the RMS Titanic that sank on its maiden voyage in April 1912. There was so much information to take in that a second visit would not be a problem. We also visited the Titanic Hotel which is housed in former office buildings of Harland and Wolff and what a fabulous rennovation they have done here - it's worth a visit in its own right. The bar area, set in one of the former drawing offices, was nice place to grab a cooling drink and there are plenty of historic photographs and displays that are worth taking time to look at as well.

There was enough time to have lunch before catching our flight and a quick bit of research pointed us towards The Dirty Duck at Holywood which was just a mile or two beyond Belfast City Airport. The food was certainly substantial and the upstairs dining area also overlooked the bay area leading to Belfast Harbour. Coupled with the walk alongside the sea after lunch this was a great place to wind up the trip to Northern Ireland.

Our flight back to Birmingham, with Flybe on BE411, was again just a short sub one hour hop across the Irish Sea making Belfast, and Northern Ireland as a whole, really accessible for a weekend break.

I know the trip to Northern Ireland was one that my mum really enjoyed a great deal especially as she is still enthusing about it. I really enjoyed it too and am pleased that she had such a great trip away despite us only scratching the surface of what NI has to offer.

More photographs available in the Northern Ireland album in the Photos area of my travel blog