Sights & Attractions in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland Sights

The city of Belfast is Northern Ireland's main gateway. A naturally lively, friendly city, Belfast has plenty of distinguished hotels and restaurants, fascinating museums, Victorian architecture, and strong maritime connections. It's testimony to the spirit of Belfast that the long years of sectarian violence have not dimmed its vibrancy. Northern Ireland's second city, Derry, is also looking to the future and has an appealing personality of its own. Rows of beautiful Georgian houses are being restored and museums and crafts shops have opened in the small city center, still enclosed by its medieval walls and one of Europe's best-preserved examples of a fortified town.

Along the shores of Northern Ireland's coasts and lakes, green, gentle slopes descend majestically into hazy, dark-blue water against a background of more slopes, more water, and huge, cloud-scattered skies. The Antrim Coast—touristically known as the Giant's Causeway Coast—is among the most scenic in all of Ireland: Dunluce Castle, the Giant's Causeway, and the small towns along the excellent roads traversing the east coast give the traveler a choice of rewarding stops. Enniskillen, in County Fermanagh, is bright and bustling, and the surrounding Lough Erne has magnificent lake views, as well as one of Ireland's famous round towers, on Devenish Island. On the other side of Enniskillen stand Castle Coole and Florence Court, two exquisitely graceful mansions built for members of the 18th-century Anglo-Irish nobility. And many will say you'll never forgive yourself if you don't discover the pretty scenery and slow pace of life that is County Down where the beautiful and dark Mountains of Mourne do indeed—just as the song says—sweep down to the sea.

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