“More and more visitors are coming to Northern Ireland, to see the Giant’s Causeway, to go to the Titanic Museum, to learn about their ancestors maybe and to get in on the great food we have,” says Derry-based chef and author Emmett McCourt, a champion of Irish food heritage. “Tourists want to learn about Irish food customs and traditional methods of food preparation. They like the stories behind the food. They want the connection to the food producer to lend meaning to what they’re experiencing.”

Drink in the scenery. On our way up the legendary Coastal Causeway, we are stunned into silence by the pastoral beauty, absorbing picture-postcard views at every turn. Farmland, villages, ocean, forest—the variety is mesmerizing. Between the castles, the cheese, the cliff walks and the gin, this is one of the best road trips in the world.

WHERE TO STAY: NEWFORGE HOUSE
HOW-TO: DRIVE ON THE LEFT

Break bread. When we reach the North Atlantic Ocean at Ballycastle, we wander into Ursa Minor Bakehouse, where baker Dara O hArtghaile and his wife Ciara treat us to a lesson in sourdough. They use methods that can be traced back hundreds of years, long before the birth of commercial yeast. The O hArtghailes dress up their loaves with things like linseed oil, nuts, grains or beer, and feature them prominently in the hearty menu at their busy vegetarian café.

TASTE TO TRY: VEGETABLE STEW RECIPE

Brave the bridge. The 250-year-old Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge was once used by fishermen to reach the region’s salmon, but now used merely to thrill the tourists.

Visit the giants. Reaching the Giant’s Causeway, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, we head out with a guide to see the 40,000 basalt columns. This geological anomaly was created by volcanic eruption 60 million years ago, the columns formed by molten lava cooling into hexagonal stone steps. This being Ireland, there’s an alternate version of the story that has little to do with volcanoes, and more to do with Celtic warrior Finn MacCool and his Scottish rival Benandonner.

Relive Game of Thrones. Twenty minutes’ drive inland, we take a spooky stroll through The Dark Hedges—a favourite stop on all the Game of Thrones tours.

Go to the beach. The famous Strand, a two-mile stretch of golden beach in Portstewart, is the ideal spot for picnicking, surfing, birding or just taking in the view. The beach also makes the perfect backdrop for dinner at Harry’s Shack. As the name implies, it is a big, wooden shed tucked at the edge of the dunes, family-run by people with restaurant resumés as long as your arm. Inside, the interior is raw and rustic with a wood stove crackling away. We tuck into perfect fish and chips and fried chicken, washed down with a bottle of wine, watching the sand slowly turn from gold to blue to black.

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Mind the curb. With left-hand drive, it’s not so much driving on the other side of the road that’s the challenge, it’s driving on the other side of the car that takes some getting used to.

Opt for GPS. This is always worth the money and they call it sat nav here (satellite navigation). Map out your adventure in advance; winging it is for amateurs. That said, the GPS will take you on the main routes, whereas the sideroads may be much more interesting.

Check your speed. Northern Ireland is part of the UK, so road signs are in miles per hour, whereas if you’re coming from Dublin, Ireland—being part of the European Union—favours the kilometre.

THINGS TO DO: IN NORTHERN IRELAND
THINGS TO DO: IN SCOTLAND

Slow down. Be on the lookout for sheep, cows, RVs, tour buses, motorcycles, etc.

Relax. Though the roads are narrow, they are far less crowded than those in the Republic of Ireland or in England or Scotland, so this is a good region for beginner left-hand drivers.

Shift gears. Note that if your car has a standard transmission, the gears will be in the same place with left-hand drive—you will just be sitting on the other side of the gearbox. (So, first gear is up and away from you.)

Share the view. If you’re able, take turns driving, so one of you doesn’t miss out completely on the gorgeous scenery.

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Vibe: This is a small country house done to the nines with perfect service, amazing food and a fire going in the drawing room. The host is beyond charming. While the antiques are extraordinary and the rooms quaint and comfortable, people come here to eat.

Rooms: With just six rooms, you get to know everyone fairly quickly. Rooms are filled with antiques that have been handed down for six generations, surrounded by original features comforted up with modern beds, Egyptian cotton, luxurious bathrooms with marble floors and Wi-Fi. You feel as if you’ve wandered into a Jane Austen novel, just waiting for someone to call you down to supper.

F&B: The kitchen at Newforge House conjures sweet and savoury delights using local ingredients, including fruit from their orchard and vegetables from the garden. All the meat is raised a stone’s throw away and a dozen or so hens come through each morning with fresh eggs. The dining room draws the weekend-away crowd from all over Ireland. We sit down to a feast of roast lamb, fresh fish and incredible cheese, then linger over after-dinner whiskeys by the fire. “Growing our own or using local produce means that we use not only foods in season, when they are at their best, but also varieties that best suit our weather conditions and soil,” explains Louise. Dinner is at 8.

THINGS TO DO: IN NORTHERN IRELAND
HOW-TO: DRIVE ON THE LEFT

Extras: The preserves and chutneys are absolutely insane, as is the gin list, which includes gins from around the world plus house-infused gins and vodkas with flavours of raspberries, blackberries, sloes and damsons (a relative of the plum).

Off-Site: Edenmore Golf & Country Club is a five-minute drive away. Ten minutes away, Lurgan Park is the second biggest park in Ireland and its Brownlow House has 365 rooms. Hillsborough Castle & Gardens, where the Royal Family stays when they come to Northern Ireland, is 15 minutes away. Hilden Brewery is the oldest independent brewery in Ireland, just 20 minutes away.

Rate: $$$

Book Now

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“Our process is slow, the bread naturally leavened, with no accelerators or additives,” Dara says. Every Ursa Minor loaf has only four ingredients: stoneground organic flour, water, salt—and time. “A loaf here takes 36 hours from start to finish, whereas plant bakeries take one hour. We ferment everything naturally, the gluten developing properly,” he says. “The slow process makes for better digestion.” If you find yourself in their busy vegetarian café, have the stew.

Vegetable Stew

Ingredients
2 small onions cut into wedges
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 fennel bulbs, roughly sliced
500 g of mixed tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 zucchini or other squash, roughly sliced or cubed
handful of torn basil leaves
grated Parmesan cheese
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 355º F (180º C).
2. Heat olive oil in a large pan, add onions and cook until translucent.
3. Add garlic and fennel, and cook for a few minutes, then add tomatoes and zucchini and cook for another few minutes.
4. Add salt, pepper and basil, and stir well.
5. Pour into a large oven-proof dish and bake for 40 minutes to an hour.
6. Remove from oven, sprinkle with cheese and drizzle with olive oil.
7. Serve with a green salad and thick slices of sourdough to mop up all the delicious juices.

SERVES 4

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THINGS TO DO: IN NORTHERN IRELAND
WHERE TO STAY: NEWFORGE HOUSE

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WHERE TO STAY: NEWFORGE HOUSE

Opened in 2012, Rademon Estate Distillery markets its Shortcross Gin as Northern Ireland’s first premium craft gin, a small-scale family operation run by Fiona and David Boyd-Armstrong. Drawing inspiration from the land for the flavours of their award-winning gin, they infuse their spirit with the taste of home—wild clover foraged from the nearby meadows, plus elderflowers, elderberries and green apples. They have their own well that supplies soft, mineral-rich water, one of the finer ingredients for sure.

David walks us through the distillation process, illustrating the local botanicals, murmuring quietly to their shiny bespoke copper pot still. His passion clearly translates into the product. I can really taste the juniper in Shortcross, with coriander creating a solid backbone peppered with notes of orange zest and cinnamon. It is beyond splendid. They pop a tiny bottle of the gin into my pocket, with the disclaimer that it won’t make it home to Canada. They are correct.

THINGS TO DO: IN NORTHERN IRELAND
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My interest in gin began years ago, when I mixed drinks at my parents’ card parties in the 1970s: gin fizzes, gimlets and rickeys. A martini for me is always gin-based unless otherwise specified—I’m that committed. Being invited to the opening of the new home of Bombay Sapphire at Laverstoke Mill south of London a few years ago was like a reward, a pilgrimage—one I still talk about, especially when I’m trying to impress other gin aficionados. (This always works.)

But England doesn’t have the market cornered when it comes to gin any more as things turn out, particularly small-batch gin: A trip to Ireland proved very much otherwise.

This truth comes out in Belfast, while spending a full Saturday afternoon with Taste & Tour, a food and drink touring company that takes you “off the eaten track” to experience the top food and drink establishments in the city centre with a couple of different walking tours, including a Whiskey Walk and a Gin Jaunt. Basically, they walk people around town getting them drunk. A simple but fun business model—and they do well by it: The Jaunts sell out weeks in advance. I soon see why.

“There’s a real fascination with gin at the moment,” says Taste & Tour founding director Phil Ervine. “Gin is a fascinating spirit category, as no two gins are the same. There are so many different styles to explore, from London Dry and Old Tom to New Western and Plymouth Gin.”

THINGS TO DO: IN NORTHERN IRELAND
TASTE TO TRY: SHORTCROSS GIN

Hello, Doug? It’s me, gin. The tour takes us to five different locations where we taste very generous pours of seven different gins in three hours, starting off in one of Belfast’s oldest pubs: the Victorian gin palace that is the Crown Liquor Saloon. We learn first about the pub (built in 1826 and restored to the tune of half-a-million pounds) and then embark on the gins, softening the first one with a Fever-Tree tonic, which I immediately dislike. The second tasting, a wet martini at Rita’s nightclub around the corner, provokes a few grimaces at the cocktail’s potency but our group’s general volume increases. I’m shocked how many people admit to never having tried a martini before, but I guess that’s the whole point.

At the third stop, I have to wave away the tonic and win kudos from Phil for just drinking the local Jawbox Gin on the rocks. It’s delicious, with fresh citrus notes balancing flavours of juniper and pine. The founder of this Belfast distillery, Gerry White, is on hand to provide a bit of context, including background on the name, which is taken from the old Belfast communal sinks in the poorer parts of town, around which neighbourhood gossip was readily shared.

Farther along our tour, Boatyard Double Gin from Enniskillen in the southwest corner of Northern Ireland lights up everyone’s eyes—mind you, we’re five in, so the lights were kinda already on and we are all really, really good friends by now. Boatyard has an even more pronounced juniper taste with a floral tinge. One of the organic botanicals is sweet gale, a type of wild myrtle that grows on the distillery property.

The last magnificent example comes in a shelf-worthy blue-glass bottle. Distilled in Drumshanbo in the Republic of Ireland, Gunpowder Irish Gin has a citrusy, tea-like taste, with one of the more noticeable botanicals being something called gunpowder tea, a type of Chinese tea that is rolled into a tiny pellet. And yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus—Gunpowder has made its way to the LCBO.

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