Mountains & Viewpoints in County Antrim

Most of this list follows the water. It starts at the mouth of Belfast Lough, where the Victorian coastal path at Whitehead runs through tunnels and under the cliffs to Blackhead Lighthouse, and continues up the Antrim Coast Road past Carnlough to Garron Point, whose cliffs band black and white where limestone meets basalt. Further north, Torr Head and Fair Head look across the Straits of Moyle to the Mull of Kintyre, and the road then swings west to Ballintoy and the Giant’s Causeway at Bushmills.

Two of the best-known entries are inland. Slemish, the exposed plug of an extinct volcano rising off the Antrim plains, is a short but steep and rocky climb with a free car park and toilets at the base. Divis, at 478m the highest of the Belfast Hills, has way-marked moorland trails to a summit taking in Lough Neagh and the Mournes, though there is no safe way up from the road, so you drive, bus or taxi to the car park.

Timing matters more than distance on this coast. The paved Blue Trail at the Causeway reaches the Grand Causeway in about ten minutes, but coaches fill it from mid-morning to late afternoon, and the same goes for the beech tunnel at the Dark Hedges, best walked at dawn or dusk. The Gobbins is guided-only and closes often for rockfalls and storms; Rue Point needs the Rathlin ferry and a four-mile walk beyond it.