PC. Causeway linking Ireland & UK.

From what I have heard there is a point where Northern Ireland and Scotland are roughly 14 miles apart. On a clear day you can see land from either side (unfortunately it was foggy on my last trip up there). In my opinion, even though the economy is reportedly getting better in Northern Ireland, I don't think a bridge/tunnel would be a good idea at the moment.

We have a static caravan not far from Millisle on the Ards Peninsula and on a clear day you can see the white houses in Scotland from there with the naked eye.

You really wouldn't want to use it as a the start point (on the NI side) for a major transport link though - the link road from Belfast to Newtownards is dual carriageway but the traffic can be horrendous all the way from the Upper Newtownards Road in Belfast past Stormont and out to Dundonald. The road out to Bangor is no better (the Holywood Exchange is a regular feature on the local radio traffic reports).

Once you're through Newtownards (a terrible town to try and drive through when it's busy) both of the roads to Donaghadee or Millisle are single carriageway country roads, regularly slowed down by farmers on their tractors and both Donaghadee and Millisle are small towns and (in the summer especially) usually almost totally gridlocked through the large number of tourists and the fact that parking in both places consists of moving vaguely in the direction of the side of the road and putting your four way park anywhere lights on. The same goes for the roads out of Bangor heading for Groomsport or Donaghadee and Bangor's as bad for driving through as Newtownards.

The railway only goes as far as Bangor or Newtownards.

In short, although it's very close to Scotland the infrastructure in the area is terrible and it would probably be getting into the billions just to improve it enough to get the construction vehicles needed for the project into the area.
 
Top