Historic Sites in County Antrim

Most of what this list holds sits inside Belfast, and much of that inside a few streets. Belfast City Hall fills the middle of Donegall Square, a 1906 Portland stone pile on the old White Linen Hall site, with free guided tours into the marble chambers and the Titanic Memorial Garden outside. The Crown Liquor Saloon is a short walk west on Great Victoria Street, an 1885 gin palace of mosaic and etched glass owned by the National Trust and still working as a pub, with the Europa Hotel across the road. North of the square, the Cathedral Quarter fills a few cobbled blocks around St Anne’s with galleries and bars in old linen warehouses; the leaning Albert Clock stands at Queens Square on the same side of town.

The rest is scattered and needs a car. Crumlin Road Gaol runs tours a mile or so north of the city centre. Ballylumford Dolmen sits in a garden on Islandmagee, a portal tomb 4,000 years old under the power station chimneys. Further up the coast, Layd Church stands ruined in a glen a mile north of Cushendall, MacDonnell burial ground and holestone together; the clifftop path from the village is shut for repairs, so drive. Armoy keeps its round tower stump inland, and its road races each summer.

The Belfast sites work year-round and in rain. The coastal and glen ruins are open ground, better in long evenings than in January.