Hidden Gem in County Antrim

Cushendun is a small and exceptionally charming village at the foot of the most northerly of the Glens of Antrim, a settlement whose white-washed Cornish-style cottages designed by Clough Williams-Ellis, the architect of Portmeirion, provide one of the most architecturally distinctive village streetscapes on the Antrim coast. The village is owned by the National Trust and the combination of the protected architecture, the small harbour, the sea caves accessible on the beach below the cliffs and the beautiful setting at the glen mouth creates one of the most rewarding small coastal destinations in Northern Ireland. The Cornish-style cottages were designed by Clough Williams-Ellis in the 1920s for the Glenavy family who owned the village and wished to create a harmonious architectural character for the settlement. Williams-Ellis, whose most famous work is the fantasy village of Portmeirion in Wales, produced at Cushendun a group of white-washed cottages with distinctive slate roofs and architectural details that create a coherent visual character quite unlike any other Antrim village, and which contributed to the National Trust's decision to acquire the village and protect its character. The sea caves accessible on the beach below the clifftop car park, carved by wave action from the distinctive red Cushendun Conglomerate, provided a dramatic location for the shadow demon birth scene in the television series Game of Thrones, and the filming association has added to the village's visitor interest.

The Dark Hedges near Stranocum in County Antrim is one of the most photographed natural features in Ireland, a beech avenue of approximately 150 years old whose intertwining canopy and atmospheric quality have made it one of the iconic images of the Northern Irish countryside and, since its appearance as the King's Road in the television series Game of Thrones, one of the most visited locations in Northern Ireland. The trees were planted in the eighteenth century by the Stuart family of Gracehill House as an impressive entrance avenue to their property and the century and a half of growth has produced the extraordinary interlocking canopy that creates the tunnel effect in both summer and winter. The Game of Thrones connection, though now the primary driver of the tourism that has made the Dark Hedges a National Tourism destination, is secondary to the genuine natural quality of the avenue itself. The beech trees, planted in pairs on either side of the road, have grown toward each other across the carriageway as mature beeches inevitably do and the resulting canopy creates a natural tunnel of considerable atmospheric power regardless of any television association. The trees are now protected and managed by the local authority and the volume of visitor traffic has required the introduction of managed access arrangements to protect both the trees and the narrow country lane that runs beneath them. The most atmospheric photographs of the Dark Hedges are made in early morning or evening light when mist is present, conditions that occur with some regularity in the north Antrim countryside.

Murlough Bay is one of the most remote and most beautiful bays on the Antrim coast, a sheltered crescent of beach and grassland enclosed between the Fair Head basalt headland and the lower ground of the Torr coast in a setting of complete isolation accessible only by a steep and winding road descending from the clifftop above. The combination of the dramatic headland of Fair Head rising 180 metres from the sea to the north, the views across the North Channel to the Mull of Kintyre barely twenty kilometres away and the quiet of this remarkably undisturbed bay makes Murlough one of the most rewarding and least visited destinations on the Causeway Coast. The bay has strong associations with the Irish cultural revival through the graves of Roger Casement and several members of the MacQuillan family of Bun-a-Margy in the ruined chapel above the beach. Roger Casement, the humanitarian activist and Irish nationalist who was hanged for treason in 1916 following his attempt to land German arms for the Easter Rising, was repatriated and buried in the ruined Carey Church above the bay in 1965, fulfilling his wish to be buried in this corner of Antrim that he loved. The grave has become a place of quiet pilgrimage. The woodland and scrub behind the beach provide habitat for a range of birds and the rocky shore below supports the marine life of the North Channel in the clear cold water typical of this exposed coastline. The walking from the bay north along the cliff toward Fair Head provides increasingly dramatic views of the great basalt columns of the headland and the sea below, one of the finest short cliff walks on the entire Antrim coast.

Portballintrae is a small and attractive coastal village on the north Antrim coast of Northern Ireland, a sheltered bay of considerable charm near Bushmills that provides a quieter and more residential alternative to the busier tourist destinations of the Giant's Causeway coast immediately to the east. The village sits on a rounded bay of golden sand backed by low cliffs, its stone cottages and the small pier giving it the character of an unspoiled seaside community that has developed organically rather than for the tourist trade. The village's position on the north Antrim coast places it within easy reach of the major attractions of this section of coastline. The Giant's Causeway, one of the natural wonders of the world, is less than two miles to the east along the cliff path, and the walk between Portballintrae and the Causeway along the coastal path is one of the finest short coastal walks in Northern Ireland, passing above the columnar basalt cliffs and providing views along the entire north Antrim coast toward Rathlin Island and the Scottish mainland beyond. The Bushmills Distillery, the oldest licensed whisky distillery in the world, is a short distance inland from Portballintrae and provides one of the most visited and most rewarding industrial heritage experiences in Ireland. The combination of the distillery visit, the Giant's Causeway and the coastal walking makes this small corner of north Antrim one of the most concentrated areas of visitor interest in Northern Ireland. The beach at Portballintrae provides safe bathing and the sheltered bay is popular with families who find the combination of the small village character and the beach facilities more relaxed than the major tourist centres nearby.

Rathlin Island is the only inhabited offshore island in Northern Ireland, a L-shaped basalt island approximately eight kilometres long lying six miles off the Antrim coast near Ballycastle that supports a permanent population of around 150 people and is accessible by ferry from Ballycastle in approximately forty-five minutes. The island combines spectacular coastal scenery of basalt cliffs and sea stacks, one of the most important seabird colonies on the east coast of Ireland, a rich history of Viking raids, medieval ownership disputes and more recent agrarian history, and the distinction of being the location where Robert the Bruce took shelter in the famous cave before his return to Scotland to resume his struggle for Scottish independence. The RSPB West Lighthouse reserve at the western tip of the island is the principal wildlife attraction, its cliff faces supporting one of the most important seabird colonies in the British Isles. Puffins, razorbills, guillemots, kittiwakes and fulmars breed in enormous numbers on the basalt stacks and cliff ledges during the spring and early summer, and the RSPB viewpoint at the lighthouse provides some of the most accessible close-range seabird watching available anywhere on the island coasts of Britain and Ireland. The puffins in particular, which nest in burrows in the turf above the cliff edge, can be observed at very close range. The cave in which Robert the Bruce is said to have sheltered between his defeats and his decisive victory at Bannockburn in 1314, observing the spider that repeatedly attempted to spin its web as an inspiration for his own persistence, is accessible on the island. The cave story is one of the most celebrated in Scottish tradition and Rathlin's claim to the location has the credibility of historical accounts that support his presence in the area.