Surprisingly good access to a natural wonder
4.5
4.5
Date of visit: July 2021
I have experience of challenges around: moving around
Overall Rating
Excellent
We didn't realise that we'd need to book a ticket with the National Trust in advance of arriving at the Giant's Causeway, but were relieved to find some helpful staff members in the car park advising of a few last minute slots available and helping us book online using our phones. After that, everything was plain sailing. There's one of those modern eco visitor centres with good loos, an exhibition, a shop and a cafe, which all had level access. From there, it's about 1km down a tarmac road to a place where you can get up close to the hexagonal columns of the Giant's Causeway itself, and my small scooter had no trouble with the journey, although it was puffing and wheezing a bit on the slope back up to the visitor centre. I was also able to enjoy the free guided tour where a local man working for the NT pointed out geological features on the road down, told us about the history of the place as a visitor attraction (now no longer crammed with souvenir stalls as it was in the past, apparently) and regaled us with Irish myths and legends. When we got down to the rocks, I was a bit sad I couldn't climb on them like everyone else, but was pleasantly surprised how close I could get on my scooter. We were also lucky that the rain mostly held off while we were outside, and we enjoyed sheltering in the visitor centre cafe when a big downpour did arrive.
Disabled Access In and Around
Excellent
I was completely happy with the level access in the visitor centre, and my scooter was fine with the road down to the stone pillars. However, some visitors might have been disappointed that a shuttle bus that sometimes operates was closed due to Covid.
Parking & Transport
Good
There were several blue badge parking spaces available and the National Trust car park seemed quite big overall, but do book ahead, unlike us! Maybe NT places will ease up on the advance booking when the pandemic is over, but it's really worth checking.
Accessible Toilets
Excellent
Clean, big, modern, good rails, didn't have to wait.
Staff
Excellent
The staff outside were particularly helpful at sorting us out when we turned up without a booking, but everyone else we met was good too, and I was grateful to the chap who was doing the Covid checks at the entrance for recognising me as someone he'd checked earlier and letting me in again swiftly when it started to rain.
Additional Information
Obviously the regulations on Covid precautions are constantly under review, so I can't vouch for what others will see when they visit in future, but when we visited, the National Trust was controlling visitor numbers by using booking slots. Everyone was required to use sanitiser on entering the visitor centre and everyone wore masks inside.
