Susan Calman’s Grand Day Out comes to north coast

The Channel 5 programme Susan Calman’s Grand Day Out will be broadcast on Friday (November 4) at 8pm and will see Susan start her journey in Glenariff.

Susan Calman hails from Glasgow, just a few hours away from Glencoe, so it takes a lot to take her breath away – but Glenariff manages it.

Next up there’s a trip to Glenarm Castle and its estate, which is home to one of the island of Ireland’s oldest walled gardens. Our intrepid host also gets a tour of the historic castle itself, before taking a ride around the estate’s roads in a vintage car.

Then it’s off to coast to sample the local delicacy dulse before travelling to nearby Portstewart for a traditional dance recital with a very modern twist.

Calman is a keen golfer so it’s not without some excitement that she plays a hole at Royal Portrush, one of the most beautiful and challenging courses in the world. Although to be fair, there is little that Calman does do without some excitement.

There’s time for a basket-making lesson with well-known local artisan maker Louise McLean and a tour of the world’s oldest whiskey distillery in Bushmills for a tasting (or in Susan’s case, a sniffing), but perhaps the highlight of this leg of her journey is to come next.

She gets to flex her artistic streak with an activity called “Drag and Draw” in which, much as the name suggests, artists assemble to capture a drag queen on canvas. That her model is none other than Northern Ireland’s own Blu Hydrangea, who was recently crowned champion of RuPaul’s Drag Race: UK vs the World, is a real bonus.

Regular viewers, though, might recall that Susan is aiming to do one thing that scares her on each of her adventures. This week, it’s a wobbly walk across the 20-metre-long rope bridge at Carrick-a-Rede, with a 30-metre drop.

Tune in on Friday to see how Susan and Helen (named after Helen Mirren, of course!) get on around the Causeway Coast.

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