Beach in County Antrim

Ballycastle is a small market town and seaside resort on the Antrim coast of Northern Ireland, its beach and harbour providing the principal visitor focus in a town that serves as the main gateway for the Rathlin Island ferry and as the central settlement of the Causeway Coast and Glens area. The beach at Ballycastle stretches for approximately one kilometre along the bay below the town, a mix of sand and shingle that is sheltered from the prevailing Atlantic swell by the headlands on either side and overlooks the distinctive flat-topped outline of Rathlin Island two kilometres offshore. The town and beach have a character that is distinctly different from the more heavily developed resorts of the Antrim coast further south. Ballycastle retains the feel of a working Irish market town with a functioning harbour, a weekly market and a local economy that extends beyond tourism alone. The Ould Lammas Fair, held annually in late August since at least the seventeenth century, is one of the oldest fairs in Ireland and draws visitors from across Northern Ireland and beyond, combining a traditional horse and cattle fair with amusements, traders and the distinctive dulse and yellowman confectionery for which Ballycastle is particularly known. The harbour below the town is the departure point for the Rathlin Island ferry, which makes the twenty-minute crossing to one of Northern Ireland's most rewarding day trip destinations several times daily in summer. Rathlin is a small, shaped island with a permanent farming and fishing community, dramatic seabird cliffs at its western end, and the cave beneath the lighthouse where Robert the Bruce is traditionally said to have sheltered and drawn inspiration from the famous spider. The puffin colony at the West Light is one of the largest and most accessible in Ireland. The surrounding Causeway Coast and Glens Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty provides extensive walking and coastal scenery, with the Fair Head cliffs immediately east of Ballycastle offering some of the most dramatic headland scenery on the north Antrim coast.

Portstewart Strand is one of the finest beaches in Northern Ireland, a two-mile arc of golden sand at the mouth of the River Bann on the north Antrim coast backed by an extensive dune system and the Atlantic Ocean that provides excellent bathing, surfing and walking in a setting of considerable coastal quality. The National Trust manages the strand and the dunes, and the combination of the beach itself, the dune grassland flora and the views along the Antrim coast and toward Donegal make it one of the most rewarding coastal sites in Ulster. The beach is one of the most popular on the north coast and the National Trust car park allows vehicles to drive onto the sand itself in a tradition that has been part of the strand's character since the motorcar made such access possible. The combination of beach driving and swimming creates a distinctive atmosphere at Portstewart that is unusual on the National Trust-managed coast and reflects the importance of the beach to the local community as a recreational resource. The dune system behind the strand is one of the most important coastal dune habitats in Northern Ireland, supporting a range of rare dune plants and the insects and birds that depend on this increasingly rare habitat. The dune grassland is managed by the National Trust to maintain the plant diversity, and the combination of the beach and the ecological interest of the dunes provides a rewarding educational dimension to the visit. The small town of Portstewart, with its promenade and the characteristic residential and hotel buildings that developed in the Victorian seaside era, provides visitor facilities and the character of a traditional seaside resort that complements the natural quality of the strand.