Porstewart, Northern Ireland

Portstewart, Northern Ireland

While taking trips with other people is great, I think there’s something special about taking a trip—even a trip of a few hours—by yourself.

Towards the end of my time abroad, I realized that I had never been to Portstewart, Northern Ireland. The town where I was studying in Northern Ireland, Coleraine, was very close to two coastal tourist towns, Portrush and Portstewart, where many students from the University of Ulster-Coleraine lived. Despite being nearby, I had only been to Portrush, not Portstewart.


Initially, I didn’t care all that much about missing out on Portstewart, but a friend encouraged me to go by emphasizing how beautiful it was. I had a free day so I decided to take the trek to Portstewart by myself. I didn’t ride the busses in Northern Ireland very often—at least, not the busses with local routes. I had used busses a lot for trips of a longer length, such as journeys to Belfast, but this trip by bus was about fifteen minutes. 


Cliff path

I knew I wanted to go to the promenade in Portstewart and then walk to the beach, but I wasn’t quite sure where the promenade was or when to get off the bus. At some point, I spotted a sign for the promenade and a minute or two later realized the bus was taking me away from the promenade instead of towards it. Thankfully, I noticed quickly enough that I was only walking about five more minutes than I would’ve had to otherwise. Though it was cold that day, I didn’t mind the walk. I had my digital camera with me and nothing distracting me from snapping tons of photographs.


At the promenade, I checked out a few of the shops.  I finally was able to find some gifts for Susquehanna friends at one of the stores.  They were little trinkets—a pretty key chain, a button my friend now has on her backpack, a cute mirror with a floral print on the back—and not particularly Irish, but I liked them a lot.





Short stretch of beach along the scenic walk

After wandering the promenade, I headed over to the cliff path. The cliff path took me by the former Dominican convent and gave me a great view of the water and of Portstewart. This cliff path turned into a scenic walk to the beach. It was a longer walk from the start of the cliff path to the beach than I expected. Though it was peaceful and the views were gorgeous, I was also quite cold, so I was excited when the beach was finally in sight. 

One downside of taking trips by yourself is not getting to be in your own photographs. I tried my best to take some pictures of myself with the ocean behind me, though doing so felt pretty ridiculous. 


It was getting dark as I made my way back to the promenade. When I checked the bus times at the bus stop, I had some time to spare before I had to head back to Coleraine. Portstewart has a famous ice cream place with some of the best ice cream in Northern Ireland. I felt like I should’ve taken advantage of it but I was way too cold to think about ice cream. Instead, I went into a café and enjoyed a warm, tasty Belgian waffle before catching the bus back to Coleraine.


Sad about walking back to town

Though I’m sure I would’ve enjoyed going to Portstewart with friends, it was also great to experience it by myself. The main attraction of Portstewart is its wonderful natural beauty, and I was able to enjoy that at my own pace. There is also a feeling of independence that comes with tackling one of the places to go on your To Do List by yourself. I was really glad that I ended up taking that friend’s advice.