Oystercatchers fly off as I step through stalks of storm-racked kelp for an icy dip in the winter-grey sea. Actually, the water feels unexpectedly warm, perhaps in contrast to the freezing wind. But it’s cold enough to do its job: every nerve is singing and I feel euphoric. I’m exploring the Antrim coast, which has some of the UK’s finest beaches, and proves excellent for a sustainable break – even in the stormy depths of winter.
Ballygally Castle is a great place to start and offers a Sea Dips and Hot Sips package that includes dry robes, hot-water bottles and flasks. The affordable castle, celebrating its 400th birthday this year, is perhaps Northern Ireland’s only 17th-century hotel.
The landscape outside is wild and green, but nearby Larne is well connected with a railway station and regular boats from Scotland. Getting here without flying or driving from my home in Essex involves three trains, two underground stops, two buses and a ferry (foot passengers from £38 each way, cabins from £35). It’s a surprisingly enjoyable adventure: a couple of comfortable hours by rail from London to Liverpool (advance tickets from about £20-25 each way), then a short hop to Hamilton Square and the docks. I fall asleep with a moonlit view of the Mersey and wake before sunrise over Belfast Lough, which I watch from the train window. By mid-morning, I’m on the beach with a post-swim buzz.
Inside the glowing castle are hot baths, log fires, slow-cooked Irish beef, hearty bowls of chowder and warm wheaten scones. Breakfasts include a cauldron of porridge with Waggle-Dance honey and Bushmills whiskey to add. The oldest part of the castle was built in 1625 with Scottish baronial-style turrets, pitched roof and thick stone walls pierced by musket holes.
A boggy afternoon hike takes me up windswept Sallagh Braes, a huge basalt amphitheatre crowned with rare mosses, where views stretch north over Antrim’s wooded glens and east across the sea to Scotland. The dramatic cliffs have appeared in Game of Thrones and the 2022 Viking epic The Northman. There are standing stones, crumbling sheepfolds and bronze age barrows. Mewing buzzards circle overhead and longhorns graze the moorland tussocks.
The next morning, I head 15 minutes up the coast on bus 162 to Glenarm Castle. The walled garden reopens in spring and hosts a tulip festival in early May. Ancestral seat of the earls of Antrim, Glenarm is home to the 15th earl and family. Their butler, George Lynn, who originally took the job for a couple of weeks and is still here 25 years later, runs perfectly pitched, book-ahead tours of the castle.
Exploring Glenarm village, there’s a red sandstone arch with an arrow marked Forest. Following it, I soon reach ferny riverside woods, where little waterfalls pour down through mossy banks and ivy-covered pines, while a red squirrel leaps through the leafless canopy. Heading back as a storm hits the coast at high tide, waves break right on to the bus windscreen. I decide to spend what’s left of the day inside, exploring Ballygally Castle. Through an inscribed stone doorway and up a spiral staircase, the highest room in the tallest tower is said to be haunted by Lady Isabella Shaw, imprisoned here after failing to produce a male heir.
Next day, I take the train to Portrush (via Belfast), spotting herons from the window as the train passes Ballycarry station. It’s a 20-minute walk from Ballycarry station to the exhilarating Gobbins cliff path, due to reopen early in 2026 as a newly upgraded circular route. A rainbow arcs over the fields as the Derry railway heads for the north coast.
From Northern Ireland’s oldest hotel, I’m now in one of the newest reopenings. The Portrush Adelphi hotel finished a fancy refurb in April last year. Rooms (from £152 a night) come with hexagonal juniper-laden gin miniatures from the Basalt distillery in homage to the nearby Giant’s Causeway. I stroll round town, have homemade soup and sea views at Babushka, and hop on a bus to Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge (£7.50/£15 for children/adults). The twice-hourly bus 402 connects Portrush with a series of attractions, including the Giant’s Causeway and the world’s oldest licensed whiskey distillery at Bushmills. Spectacular views of clifftop castles and long sandy beaches roll past the windows.
Salmon fishers first strung the rope bridge between cliffs, 100 feet above a roiling ocean, near Ballintoy in the mid-18th century. Strong winds mean the bridge itself is closed today and I stroll the mile-long scenic path to the viewpoint feeling secretly relieved. There’s virtually no other company on this wintry afternoon but sheep on the hillside and bright stonechats perched on the brambles.
On my last day, I walk five blustery, dramatic miles of coast path to neighbouring Portstewart, catching a late lilac sunrise over Portrush harbour. Flocks of coral-legged turnstones swirl and scamper; huge gannets plunge into the foaming white waves at 60mph. From Harry’s Shack on Portstewart Strand, it’s a 20-minute bus ride to Louise McLean’s whitewashed cottage, firelit studio and welcoming workshop in a repurposed primary-school portable building.
Louise has been making baskets for 25 years and grows 15 types of willow in her wildlife-rich garden, inspired by the coast with its “undulating curves, waves, and weaves”. A sudden downpour thunders on the metal roof as we twist brown willow strands in the cosy, candle-dotted room and Louise tells me about her new residential workshops. They’re on Rathlin, Northern Ireland’s only year-round inhabited offshore island and one of many reasons to come back. Heading off on the first bus of the journey home, my head is full of wild weather and warm welcomes.
This trip was partly provided by Tourism Ireland with accommodation provided by Ballygally Castle (doubles from £88 room-only; Sea Dips package from £155). More information at ireland.com
