Colin Glen packs three of Ireland’s firsts into 200 acres of woodland on the western edge of Belfast: the Black Bull Run, the country’s first Alpine Coaster; River Rapid, its longest zipline; and the only official, Julia Donaldson-endorsed Gruffalo Trail on the island. It’s run as a community trust, and the glen it sits in was once the engine room of Belfast’s linen trade rather than a theme park – which is the tension that defines a visit here.
If you’re bringing small children, head for the River Entrance and the Gruffalo Trail; if you’re here for the adrenaline, it’s the Mountain Entrance and the Alpine Coaster. The one ride to prioritise is the Black Bull Run – over 500 metres of track with 12 twists and two tunnels, and your ticket buys three runs, so you can learn the brakes on the first and let go on the third.
Three entrances
The park is split across three entrances, and picking the right one matters because they’re a fair walk apart:
- River Entrance (163 Stewartstown Road, BT17 0HW) – the quiet, family end, with the Gruffalo Trail, guided nature and heritage walks, the café and information centre. Parking here is free.
- Mountain Entrance (28 Colin Glen Road, BT17 0LR) – the adventure hub: the Black Bull Run Alpine Coaster, the Forest Flyover and River Rapid ziplines, laser tag and the SkyTrek course. Parking is charged, and in autumn and winter this entrance is closed Monday to Thursday, so check before you travel.
- Leisure Entrance (115 Blacks Road, BT10 0NF) – sport and recreation: a golf course, an indoor 3G dome, a TrackMan driving range and a gym.
Walking the park itself is free; the rides and activities are ticketed individually or as a combined pass, and the popular ones are worth booking ahead at weekends and during school holidays.
The linen-mill glen
Colin Glen was a working valley long before it was an adventure park. From the 1700s the McCance family ran flax and beetling mills along the Colin River, and the river fed bleaching greens for the Suffolk Linen Company and Killeen Bleach Works. The water was diverted along a mill race to turn the wheels; you can still see the remains of it at the Weir Bridge. The glen later served as a game reserve for local landowners in the 1800s, and the lower woodland was largely felled for timber during the Second World War.
The Colin River also runs past a fossil bed, and winter spates wash down ammonites, crinoids and the odd shark’s tooth from the rock – a genuinely unusual thing to find on a city walk.
The walks
Four colour-coded routes start from the lower glen:
- Yellow (2.3 miles) – follows the river through broadleaf woodland and is the one to take with a pram or wheelchair.
- Green (1.5 miles) – runs as far as the gamekeeper’s bridge, with an optional flight of steps.
- Blue / Ballycullo (2.8 miles) – the one for the views, taking in Belfast, Stormont, the Harland and Wolff cranes and the Mourne Mountains beyond.
- Red / Hannahstown (4 miles) – the serious walk, climbing out of the lower glen into the National Trust-owned upper Glen. Wear proper footwear; the upper paths are uneven and soft after rain.
One honest caveat: the development divides people. The Trust planted 60,000 trees and built the trail network, but the adventure attractions have brought car parks, towers and a busier, noisier glen, and some regulars feel the quiet riverside woodland and its wildlife have lost out. Come for a coaster-and-zipline day and you’ll have a great time; come expecting a peaceful nature reserve and you may be surprised by the scale of it all.
Getting there and nearby
The park sits just off the M1 (Junction 3) on the south-western edge of Belfast, about five minutes from the city centre by car. All three entrances are on Translink bus routes, and the River Entrance is also reachable on the Glider G1 and Metro routes 10C/10D/10G/10H from Queen Street (alight at Woodbourne). For more hillwalking close by, Black Mountain rises straight behind the glen; the Red route already brings you onto its lower slopes.
Book the Black Bull Run online before you head up the hill, especially on a Saturday – the system holds your slot, so you can spend the morning on the river trails or the driving range and turn up just in time to ride.