Scenic Place in County Antrim

Hillsborough in County Down is one of the finest and most completely Georgian small towns in Northern Ireland, a planned estate town of the eighteenth century whose Georgian square, courthouse, fort and parish church and the nearby Hillsborough Castle, the official Northern Ireland residence of the British Royal Family, create one of the most complete and most elegant historic urban ensembles in Ulster. The town's combination of the Georgian architecture and the political significance of the castle makes it one of the most historically important and most scenically refined small towns in the province. Hillsborough Castle, the official residence in Northern Ireland of the Secretary of State and the Royal Family, has been the setting for some of the most significant political events in Northern Irish history, including the meetings that contributed to the peace process agreements of the 1990s. The castle and its gardens were opened to the public in 2019 following a major restoration programme, providing access to the state rooms and the beautiful parkland gardens for the first time in the castle's history. The Georgian square of Hillsborough, with its courthouse, the Church of Ireland parish church and the surrounding terraces of Georgian houses, provides one of the finest examples of a planned Georgian town in Ulster and the combination of the architectural quality and the political history makes Hillsborough one of the most rewarding and most complete heritage visits in County Down.

Cave Hill above north Belfast is the most distinctive landmark in the Belfast skyline, a basalt escarpment rising to 368 metres at McArt's Fort that overlooks the city and Belfast Lough in a panorama that provides the most comprehensive view of the Northern Irish capital and its setting between the mountains and the sea. The hill gives Belfast Castle its dramatic setting and provides the finest accessible walking within the city boundaries, the combination of the basalt cliff scenery, the cave system that gives the hill its name and the extraordinary views creating one of the most rewarding urban walks in Britain and Ireland. McArt's Fort at the summit is the place where Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen are said to have made their pledge in 1795 to seek an independent Irish republic, creating a historical significance that has made the site a place of political pilgrimage as well as a natural attraction. The view from the fort, with Belfast spread below and the Lough extending to the sea beyond, provides the context for understanding why this plateau above the city was chosen for such a symbolic act. The basalt cliffs of Cave Hill, formed from the same lava flows that produced the Giant's Causeway on the Antrim coast, are home to peregrine falcons and ravens, and the cave complex in the cliff face provides the geological feature from which the hill takes its name. Belfast Castle at the foot of the hill provides visitor facilities and the heritage centre within the castle provides interpretation of the hill's natural and cultural history.