One of the most striking of all modern tourist-drawing pictures must have been that of a bridal party crossing a bridge over a sea chasm, the bride's veil flowing out behind and above her head, for yards and yards and yards. The picture stands on its own as a brilliant photograph. Hope it won some prizes. And the location was the famous bridge at Carrick-a-Rede in North Antrim. The bridge is there for salmon fishers - not anglers, but professional fishermen. They have to cross it to get to the open sea where the salmon run westward along the coast, intent on swimming up their native rivers, the Bush, Bann or Foyle, there to continue the life of the species. How many of them make it, is another matter. But this bridge goes far back into history. Robert McCahan, in a remarkable book McCahan's Local Histories, published by the Glens of Antrim Historical Society, tells us that the bridge can with certainty be traced back to 1784, but must have been there long before. It is known as the rope bridge, referring to the fact that in crossing you hold on to a rope on both sides. There used to be a rope on one side only. But now it's something of a big tourist draw: The land is separated from the cliff over which salmon fishers must go to their nets by this famous bridge. He tells us that the chasm is 60 feet wide, and under you is a drop into the sea of 90 feet. He describes the construction as being of the width of two planks, braced tightly and supported underneath by two cables attached at either end by an iron ring inserted into the rock.
Naturally it dips in the centre and sways a lot if there is a wind at all, and even from your footsteps if you dare to cross. It was up to 1890 that there was only one rope to hang on to. Now you have one for each hand. Not frightening so much for the person crossing, but for the nervous watcher who doesn't want to experiment himself or herself. The fishermen, it is said by McCahan, can tell from its appearance which river each salmon caught was bound for Bush, Bann or Foyle. A poem by David Lindsay is quoted: The slender storm-swept bridge, suspended high/ Above the storm-wreathed waves from ledge to ledge/ Full ninety feet beneath the frowning edge/ The leaping, crested seas rush madly by./ How perilous! Yet fishers daily tread/ The long flat boards and cables without dread.
The bridge is taken away at the end of September. Only a few days to go now. Y