A pair of Irish landmarks celebrate their 400th birthdays this year: Old Bushmills Distillery, in Co Antrim, and Woodenbridge Hotel Lodge, in Co Wicklow. Tom Adairand Bernice Harrisonblow out the candles.
SITTING IN ONE of the cosiest snugs in the Bushmills Inn, Jimmy, a whiskey aficionado from down the road, savours a tot of the local gold, inhaling intently, then answers my question about the candles: "They'll need Fionn mac Cumhaill to blow them all out. Four hundred candles: now that's a fire risk."
Three Irish icons - Mac Cumhaill, the Giant's Causeway and Bushmills whiskey - are just part of the taken-for-granted backdrop to life in Bushmills, a tiny Co Antrim village at the heart of the Causeway Coast.
But this year is different. "It's not every day you reach 400," Jimmy says, "and all down to a Scotchman. Who would have thought it?"
The irony isn't lost. King James VI of Scotland, who became James I of England and Ireland, granted a licence for the distillation of whiskey within the precinct of Bushmills from 1608, making the Old Bushmills distillery, within a whisker of a certainty, the oldest in the world.
Whiskey production on this coast can be traced back still farther, to the early 13th century, when uisce beatha is referred to in ancient annals. Bushmills itself, as one of the centres of "illicit" distillation, is mentioned in records from 1490. Some of this rat-a-tat-tat of statistics forms part of the flow of information that peppers the spiel on your guided tour.
It takes 45 minutes, a whistle-stop journey through the plant, pointing out the essentials of fermentation, distillation and maturation. The guide, Sam Turtle, blends terms such as "mash" and "wash" and "wort" like a master purveyor of arcane rites, bemusing a pair of touring Canadians by saying that no one should drink Bushmills on the rocks, be it malt or blend. Do the pair know why? They furrow their brows. "Because it was ice that sunk the Titanic," Turtle blurts out in his Ulster burr. Everyone laughs. We head for the bar to test his theory.
Bushmills village is almost halfway along the stretch of fabulous coastline from Ballycastle to Castlerock, which boasts some of Ireland's most scenic beaches.
This coast is seductive, sensory, maddening and beguiling; its moods are the mistress of the weather. Catch it in sunshine and it glitters, belying the growl and glare of swirling Arctic storms driven south by gales in the heart of winter. From spring to autumn a gentler spirit prevails, and visitors who follow the journey from east to west through the necklace of villages and towns, along bays and cliff tops, gazing north towards the islands of Scotland, will be entranced.
Ballycastle, on the county's rugged shoulder, runs a ferry to Rathlin Island (where Robert the Bruce confronted the spider). The town is lively and unspoilt, with its little museum a nugget of history, telling the story of the McDonnell chiefs and their conflicts. Every August the Auld Lammas Fair is a scene of bedlam, famed for dulse and "yellow man". And McDonnell's pub is a hub of great music.
A few kilometres west you can find yourself walking across the Atlantic, on the rope bridge at Carrick-a-Rede, a heart-in-mouth affair, from the cliffs to a rocky bluff, a haven for birds, not least on account of the plentiful stream of Atlantic salmon.
Some of the coastal treats are hidden (Ballintoy harbour; the view from Dunseverick back towards the Mull of Kintyre); others are blazoned across the guidebooks (Whitepark Bay; the Giant's Causeway, now a World Heritage site; and the jagged Dunluce Castle, lording it over White Rocks beach and distant Portrush).
Almost unsung is the fort at Mountsandel, overlooking the River Bann on the edge of Coleraine. Here sits the oldest-known human settlement in Ireland, lost amid trees. It should be a place of commemoration, properly marked and on the pilgrimage trail for tourists and locals alike. You skirt its edge should you take a pleasure-boat cruise upriver during summer.
Those Stone Age ancestors didn't have whiskey to lull them, of course. Back at the bar of the Bushmills Inn, in the wake of a gastronomic trip through the Menu of Moyle - Ballycastle-caught fish, Ballintoy lamb, plus an orange sorbet from Dundermotte Farm and chocolate mousse enhanced with a tincture of Bushmills whiskey - I chew the fat with Jimmy the Malt.
He tells me Bushmills will be en fête, a floral effusion using whiskey barrels to showcase this summer's flora.
"Bank of Ireland too are at it, issuing notes that show the distillery looking famously old and proud," he says, and raises his 10-year-old malt to toast a famous 400th birthday.
The whiskey glows in the mellow gaslight and Jimmy is smiling. "Nothing better," he says, "except maybe the 25-year-old. The inn has a special cask." He gives me a look. I refuse the hint.
TA
CO ANTRIM ESSENTIALS
Where to stay
The 17th-century Bushmills Inn (048-20733000, www.bush millsinn.com) is a Causeway Coast must, with open peat fires, a round tower and elegant rooms, which start at €120 for a twin or double, rising to €330 for a "superior" room in the Mill House. Excellent breakfast, lunch and dinner menu. Good wine list.
Where to eat
55 Degrees North (048-70822811, www.55- north.com). This restaurant overlooks Portrush's superb East Strand and the distantWhite Rocks beach, with a glimpse of the heads of the Giant's Causeway. The fish is delicious. Local produce cooked for flavour. Mains start at about €12.
Where to go
Take the tour of Bushmills distillery. 048-20733218, www.bushmills.com.
Play golf at any one of half a dozen great courses, from Ballycastle to Royal Portrush, one of the world's most challenging links, which has hosted a range of international championship events. 048-70822311, www.royalportrushgolfclub.com.
Take a surfing lesson, and grace the White Rocks rollers. Visit Troggs surf shop
(88 Main Street, Portrush, 048- 70825476, www.troggs.com).
Ride the Giant's Causeway Railway between the causeway and the village. 048-20732844, www.freewebs.com/ giantscausewayrailway.
"The Woodenbridge is where Éamon and Sinéad de Valera spent their honeymoon"
CLAIMING YOU'RE the oldest anything in a country full of history anoraks is a tricky business, but Woodenbridge Hotel Lodge, in Co Wicklow, is sticking firmly to its story that it is the oldest hotel in Ireland. Its claim seems solid enough, as it's based on the licensing of a coaching inn that stood on the spot in 1608 and for a couple of centuries afterwards.
The inn, which was on the original Dublin-Wexford highway, was a stopover for carriages making what must have been an exhausting journey. Later, well-heeled Victorians immersing themselves in the new romantic trend of getting in touch with nature found that it was within perfect carriage distance from Dublin for a day-long jaunt in the countryside.
It still does a roaring passing trade. There's bar food all day and a more formal restaurant. On the rainy Saturday I arrive, the bar is heaving with day trippers tucking into chowder, fish and chips, boxty burgers and toasted sandwiches before they head off to nearby Avondale House or Avoca.
Its current owners, Bill and Esther O'Brien, are hugely proud of their hotel's history - Charles Stewart Parnell and Michael Collins were guests, and it's where newlyweds Éamon and Sinéad de Valera spent their honeymoon, in 1910. There are some old sepia photographs on the walls in the reception area of Parnell and other past residents (although not of the honeymooning de Valeras), but they don't lay it on with a trowel - which in one way is a pity, because the hotel has a fascinating history beyond the roll call of people who stayed there.
Its real heyday was in the 1790s, during the Wicklow gold rush (no, me neither) and, a little later, during the tourist boom of the early 1800s. Back then, jarveys operating outside the door of the hotel brought day trippers around the Vale of Avoca and up to the Meeting of the Waters to see the beauty spots mentioned in Thomas Moore's melodies, which were the pop songs of the day.
The gold rush is surely worth more attention than it gets. In 1796 Woodenbridge was gripped with gold fever because of a find in the nearby Gold Mines River of a large nugget. Within a few months 2,600oz had been found, and things soon got out hand, with hoards of prospectors descending on the area to the extent that two companies of the Kildare militia were sent to take over the ground and to have the streams investigated by experts.
Maybe Co Wicklow simply has so much history it doesn't quite know what to do with it all. In a less culture-rich county there'd be a shack in them there hills, charging tourists to pan in the river - and I'd be first in line with my wellies and giant sieve.
The biggest surprise in rolling up to the charming black-and-white Woodenbridge Hotel is that it's now a Best Western - not a brand that immediately springs to mind when you think of 400-year-old hotels. Apparently it's a marketing thing - being part of a huge global chain gets you high billing in internet searches and holiday-booking sites.
This, however, is very much an old-fashioned family-run place. The O'Briens bought it off the famous Irish-American philanthropist and businessmen Chuck Feeney 16 years ago. They have expanded over the years, but, with no garden to the front and a mountain at the back, space is limited.
But they did extend to the side (where I had a room on the first floor with a balcony and beautiful sylvan views over the bridge and golf course), so that there are now 22 bedrooms in the main, original hotel and an extra 40 in a modern annex across the road on the banks of the river. This annex, which has its own restaurant, is popular with groups booking in for a weekend of golf at the adjacent club, and it seems like a great spot for small summer weddings.
Bedrooms in the main hotel are old fashioned rather than olde worlde - the sort of rooms that have a tiny portable TV on a high shelf and shower curtains in the bathroom.
Overall the place has a lived-in feel, which could turn off people more used to hotels with smart upholstery in the bar and new plain carpets in the corridors. For others, the slightly worn look will add to the character and charm. I'm somewhere in the middle.
BH
0402-35146, www.woodenbridgehotel.com.
CO WICKLOW WONDERS
Discover more
Regional Tourist Office, Coleraine. 048-70344723, www.northcoastni.com.
Where to go
You need quite a bit of luck finding things around here: the signposting in Co Wicklow is desperate.
Although Woodenbridge is a bit shy about its history, you can't say the same for Avoca. Signs still boast that the village is the home of Ballykissangel, the BBC drama that filmed there up to 2001 - time to move on, maybe? Still, it's a charming place, the birthplace of Avoca Handweavers, and it has a shop and weaving centre in a pretty olde-worlde whitewashed complex.
Visit Avondale House and Forest Park in nearby Rathdrum (0404-46111), the birthplace in 1846 of Charles Stewart Parnell. It's now a museum to his memory, but even if you don't go into the house, there are beautiful forest walks in the garden, and kids love the freedom of it.
Play a round of golf at Woodenbridge Golf Club (0402-35202, www.wooden bridgegolfclub.com). A par-71 parkland course in a beautiful and tranquil setting. The Avoca and Aughrim rivers meet in the centre of the back nine.
The unmissable Glendalough Valley with its famous round tower and monastic site. Slightly odd seeing the stalls selling T-shirts, chips and ice cream, but the site is well worth a visit any time, even on the notoriously busy Sundays. About a million people visit Glendalough every year.