Northern Ireland
We’ve compiled the best of the best in Northern Ireland - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
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1. Cushendun
Off the main A2 route, the road between Cushendall and Cushendun turns into one of a Tour-de-France hilliness, so cyclists beware. Your reward, however, is the tiny jewel of a village, Cushendun, which was designed in 1912 by Clough Williams-Ellis (who also designed the famous Italianate village of Portmeirion in Wales) at the request of Ronald John McNeill, Baron Cushendun. Up sprang a series of cottages and a village square of seven houses, all done up in the Cornish taste courtesy of the Penzance-born wife of the baron. To top it all off, the baron had Glenmona House built in the regal neo-Georgian style. From this part of the coast you can see the Mull of Kintyre on the Scottish mainland. Hikes along the beachy strand have inspired poets and artists, including John Masefield. Glenmona House is now used for community and social events and next door to it in Church Lane---barely visible through the trees---the former Church of Ireland, built in 1840 and deconsecrated in 2003, reopened to the public as an arts, heritage, and information center in 2019. They hold concerts, talks, and stage exhibitions and it is worth calling in to see how the former place of worship has been transformed by the Cushendun Building Preservation Trust. The Ulster History Circle has also erected a blue plaque on the building to Moira O'Neill, a poet and novelist from Cushendun famed for her book Songs of the Glens of Antrim. The Old Church Centre is run by volunteers and is open mostly from noon to 4 pm, Friday--Sunday.
Old Church Centre, Church La. off Bay Rd., Cushendun, Co. Antrim, BT44 OPS, Northern Ireland028-2176–1522 -
2. Dark Hedges
A narrow single-track road lined by twisted beech trees whose numbers are steadily being diminished by gales and climate change, the Dark Hedges is a bit anticlimactic even for fanatical Game of Thrones--location tourists hoping for a classic selfie. The avenue of trees was originally planted in the early 1770s by the Stuart family, wealthy local landowners. Tours have been suspended since 2020 due to Covid-19 restrictions; for further information visit www.darkhedgesestate.com. Since its role as Kingsroad in Game of Thrones, the Dark Hedges has become the most visited of the Irish sights linked to the TV series, attracting tens of thousands of visitors annually. With its foreboding atmosphere, the road—more an unprepossessing single-track lane with a few twisted beech trees—has become a backdrop for Instagram antics. It has also been filmed for scenes in Transformers: The Last Knight (2017), which has added to its movie-buff status. In the early 1770s when the Stuart family built their house called Gracehill, they lined the avenue with two rows of 150 beeches to impress visitors. The road now comes with a preservation order in a place that is so crowded with "location tourists" that it is closed to all but local traffic; few would have guessed some years ago that their narrow country lane would be so popular with film and TV directors that it would become a victim of overtourism. Parking on either the Bregagh Road (the Dark Hedges road itself), which is off Ballinlea Road, is prohibited. The surrounding fields are privately owned and not open to the public; visitors are asked to respect the trees and not to deface or mark the bark. The road is prone to flooding in the winter so the best time to visit is in spring when, if you catch the right day, the area is alive with birdsong and the melodic warbles of finches, tits, robins, and blackcaps. Get there early in the morning or leave your visit until later in the day when it is quieter. There is parking (£2 per car) at the Dark Hedges Experience visitor center, open 10 am--3 pm, Monday--Friday and 10 am--4 pm on the weekends; parking is free if you are a customer of the hotel. You can find information in the center on the history of the site, alongside merchandise from the Game of Thrones series such as T-shirts, hoodies, candles, and fridge magnets. Tours are held, but times vary and it is best to check with the center or with the Causeway Coast and Glens tourist office in the main street of the village of Armoy, a 10-minute drive. The center and car park is a 5- to 10-minute walk from the Dark Hedges road.
Bregagh Rd., Ballymena, Co. Antrim, BT53 8PX, Northern IrelandSight Details
Rate Includes: Free -
3. Glenariff Forest Park
The best-known and most accessible of Antrim's glens opens on to Red Bay at the village of Glenariff (also known as Waterfoot). Inside the park are picnic facilities and some easy hikes. Bisecting the park are two lovely rivers, the Inver and the Glenariff, which help sculpt the rocky gorges here and culminate in the famous 5½-km (3½-mile) Waterfall Trail, marked with red arrows, which passes outstanding views of the Glenariff and its three small waterfalls. Its higher expanses are a less charming mix of bare moorland, scarred by the remnants of commercial conifer forestry. There's an abrupt transition back to a patchwork of trim fields as you head back toward the coast. Escape from the summer crowds by taking one of the longest trails, such as the Scenic Hike (9 km [5½ miles]) or the shorter Viewpoint Trail and the Rainbow Trail, both half a mile. Pick up a detailed trail map at the park visitor center, which also has a small cafeteria.
98 Glenariff Rd., Glenariff, Co. Antrim, BT44 OQX, Northern Ireland028-7034–0870Sight Details
Rate Includes: Vehicles £5 -
4. Carnlough
A little resort made of white limestone, Carnlough overlooks a small harbor surrounded by stone walls. The harbor can be reached by crossing over the limestone bridge from Main Street, built especially for the Marquess of Londonderry. The small harbor, once a port of call for fishermen, now shelters pleasure yachts and is a base for wildlife-watching boat trips. Carnlough is surrounded on three sides by hills that rise 1,000 feet from the sea.
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5. Cushendall
Turnley's Tower—a curious, fortified square tower of red stone, built in 1820 as a curfew tower and jail for "idlers and rioters"—stands at a crossroads in the middle of Cushendall, called the capital of the Glens because it has a few more streets than the other villages nearby. The road from Waterfoot to Cushendall is barely a mile long and worth the stroll or cycle out to see the coastal caves (one of which had a resident for many years, a local woman named Anne Murray) that line the route.
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