Cushendall Antrim
Cushendall is the principal village of the Glens of Antrim, a settlement at the confluence of three of the nine Antrim glens whose combination of the colourful painted shopfronts, the remarkable Curfew Tower that serves as the principal visual landmark of the village and the access it provides to the surrounding glens and the Antrim coast makes it the most rewarding base for exploring this section of the northeast Irish coast. The village is the centre of the Red Bay area and the nearby Red Bay castle ruins provide the medieval dimension to a village whose character is primarily Georgian and Victorian.
The Curfew Tower, an unusual circular red sandstone tower built in 1817 by Francis Turnly as a place of confinement for idlers and rioters, is the most distinctive building in the village and provides a visual focal point quite unlike any other structure on the Antrim coast. Its original function as a lock-up for disturbers of the peace was apparently taken seriously by its builder, who was sufficiently exercised by the idleness of the local population to build a dedicated facility for their correction.
The surrounding Glens of Antrim, in particular Glenariff to the south with its series of waterfalls and the Forest Park, Glenaan and Glenballyeamon to the north, provide excellent walking and scenery in a landscape that is among the most beautiful and most traditionally Irish in the northeast. The Irish language has been spoken in the Glens for centuries and the Gaelic culture of this section of Antrim is among the most authentic surviving in Ulster.