Leon Turnbull Photography

There is one thing that perturbed me about all my hikes in Scotland and Northern Ireland: there was a lot of trash on the trail. I found that the trails had more litter than even in California. It would not surprise me if a lot of this trash was caused by Americans littering in foreign countries, and there may have been some of that, but I believe the vast majority of it was done by locals. I find this very upsetting and sad. Cranny Falls, for instance, which we went to next after Glenoe Falls, is mostly a locals trail, not a tourist trail, and there was a ton of trash on this trail. I always pick up trash when I am hiking as I hate seeing litter on trails (it is my number two pet peeve). My wife and I picked up more than our fair share of it, trying to clean up the trails in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but it got to the point where I was just sick and tired of it all. I think the Scottish and Irish hiking trails societies ought to be thanking us personally (if there is even such a group in those countries – ha ha).

We did find the people in Scotland and Northern Ireland to be very friendly. On our hike to Cranny Falls, my wife asked some locals about the berries she saw on some plants. Are they edible, she asked? No! they replied emphatically. That is poison ivy. Don’t eat that. We want you to enjoy your stay in our country!

After Cranny Falls, our next stop was Glenariff Falls, where there are two beautiful waterfalls on a nice loop trail in Glenariff Forest Park, an upper falls – pictured here (60 ft.) and a lower falls (40 ft.). You have to pay for parking at this park, 5 pounds. It is worth the fee, but again, I found so much trash on these trails. If I am paying this much to go into the park, why aren’t they keeping the trails clean? Where is my money going to? Why can’t they keep their parks clean in Northern Ireland? I found this to be even more upsetting than the trail at Cranny Falls (where the parking was free).

My daughter took a wrong turn on the trail here, because she decided to go off the trail to take a “short cut”, and thus she missed the “waterfall sign” pointing the other direction. I was way behind (taking video) and did not see her, but my wife saw her go off the wrong way and yelled at me, so I grabbed my camera and ran after her. It took awhile to catch her, she was far up the trail. So much for that short cut. It was a fun hike, but not exactly easy. There is a long climb from the lower falls back up the car. By the time we got back to the car, the local cafe was closed because it was almost sunset, which is where I had hoped to eat dinner. We had to drive a bit, but we eventually found something better: a pizza place in some small town. Yum.