To Do

Ballintoy Harbour

A small whitewashed working harbour on the Causeway Coast, built for the 1860s lime trade — and Game of Thrones' Lordsport, port of the Iron Islands.

Ballycastle

A working seaside town at the eastern end of the Causeway Coast — the Ould Lammas Fair since 1606, the Rathlin ferry, and Marconi's early radio experiments.

Bushmills

The historic village of Bushmills — home to the world's oldest licensed whiskey distillery, 2 miles from the Giant's Causeway.

Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge

A 20-metre rope bridge to a rocky island near Ballintoy, maintained by the National Trust, with nearly half a million visitors a year.

Castlerock

A small seaside village near Mussenden Temple, Hezlett House, and a genuinely good surfing and swimming beach — the quiet western end of the Causeway Coast.

Causeway Coastal Route: Complete Guide & Map

A 120-mile road from Belfast to Derry~Londonderry, with the Giant's Causeway at its heart — every real stop worth building into the drive.

Dunluce Castle

A clifftop ruin between the Giant's Causeway and Portrush — the Girona shipwreck, the kitchen lost to the sea, and Game of Thrones' House Greyjoy.

Dunseverick Castle & Falls

A 5th-century fort on a solitary rock — once the northern end of a royal road from Tara, and a stop on Saint Patrick's own travels.

Fair Head

A 3-mile, 200-metre dolerite cliff near Ballycastle — one of Europe's biggest expanses of climbable rock, with an Iron Age crannog on its summit.

Giant's Causeway & Bushmills Railway

A narrow-gauge heritage railway running along the original 1883 tram route between Bushmills and the Giant's Causeway.

Hezlett House

A thatched cottage near Castlerock dating to 1691 — one of the best-preserved vernacular buildings of the Plantation period, now run by the National Trust.

Kinbane Castle

A 1547 MacDonnell stronghold on a narrow white limestone headland near Ballycastle — smaller and quieter than Dunluce, with a genuinely dramatic setting.

Loughareema, the Vanishing Lake

A lake in Ballypatrick Forest that genuinely drains and refills itself within hours through a chalk sinkhole — and the real 1898 tragedy behind its ghost story.

Magheracross Viewpoint

A viewing platform halfway between Portrush and Bushmills — sweeping coastal views by day, and a real shot at the northern lights after dark.

Marconi's Wireless Link to Rathlin Island

In 1898, Guglielmo Marconi built one of the world's first commercial wireless links between a cottage near Ballycastle and the Rathlin Island lighthouse.

Murlough Bay

A genuinely remote bay below Fair Head, tied to Roger Casement's unfulfilled dying wish and used as a Game of Thrones filming location.

Mussenden Temple & Downhill Demesne

A circular 18th-century library perched on a cliff edge near Castlerock — built by an eccentric bishop as a memorial to his cousin, now a National Trust site.

Portrush: Your Base for the Causeway Coast

A seaside golf town on Ramore Head, minutes from the Giant's Causeway — beaches, the 2019 Open Championship course, and a good base for the whole coast.

Portstewart

A Victorian seaside town with a 2-mile National Trust strand, Morelli's ice cream since 1911, and a castle-turned-school on the headland.

Rathlin Island

Northern Ireland's only inhabited offshore island, a short ferry ride from Ballycastle — puffin cliffs, Bruce's Cave, and around 150 residents.

The Dark Hedges

A beech-tree tunnel on Bregagh Road near Armoy, planted in 1775 and made famous as Game of Thrones' King's Road — free to visit, but come early.

The Gobbins Cliff Path

A guided walk along bridges and tunnels blasted into the cliffs of Islandmagee — a real engineering marvel, though a fair drive from the Causeway itself.

Whiterocks Beach

Chalk cliffs between Portrush and Dunluce Castle, carved into named arches and caves — the Wishing Arch, Elephant Rock, Cathedral Cave, and more.