The presidential link
Just off the B62 stands Arthur Cottage, the family home of William Arthur, a Baptist minister who emigrated to New York with his family in 1828. His son Chester A. Arthur went on to serve as the 21st president of the United States, from 1881 to 1885. The line from this thatched County Antrim cottage to the White House is the reason most people make the detour to Cullybackey.
The cottage has been restored to its late 18th-century state, with an open flax-straw thatched roof and period furnishings, and the displays inside trace the family’s journey out of rural Ulster. In spring and summer it often runs baking demonstrations over an open turf fire, where you can watch and taste old recipes like Irish soda bread and pancakes. There is a small admission charge, and it opens Wednesday to Sunday, 11am–3pm – worth checking ahead by phone, as the season and hours can shift.
Cullybackey itself
The village (Irish: Coill na Baice, the wood of the river bend) sits three miles north-west of Ballymena on the River Main, with a population of just over 2,600. Main Street carries the usual run of local shops and cafés, and the station still sees roughly hourly trains, which is more than many rural Ulster villages can say.
People lived in this river valley a long time before any of that. Archaeological surveys have turned up crannogs (artificial lake dwellings) and souterrains across the fertile ground, and the area lay within the early medieval kingdom of Dál nAraidi. In the early Christian period the missionary Mackevet is said to have secured land from a local chieftain for a monastery that became a regional centre of learning. Much later, in 1778, John Dickey of Cullybackey House raised the Cullybackey Volunteers, a local militia that mirrored the politics of the day. By 1847 the place was still small – roughly 50 houses and 235 people – and it was the railway, arriving in the 1850s, that turned it into a transport hub. Among its better-known natives are the Celtic poet Ella Young, born 1867, and the footballer Steven Davis.
Churches and a castle
Several of Cullybackey’s churches map the strands of Ulster’s religious history. The Old Methodist Church on the riverbank was built in 1839 as an Original Secession Church, passed to the United Free Church of Scotland, and became Methodist in 1923. Cuningham Memorial Presbyterian Church and the Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanter) Church serve their own congregations nearby.
Craigs Church of Ireland, completed in 1840, was designed by Sir Charles Lanyon, the 19th-century architect behind much of Belfast’s grander stonework. Its graveyard holds the Strangers Plot, where famine victims and destitute parishioners were buried during the Great Hunger – a sober corner worth a moment if you visit. A mile outside the village, Craigdun Castle is a Scottish baronial pile also attributed to Lanyon. For decades it served as a specialist home for people with multiple sclerosis; sold in the 1990s, it has since been privately renovated, and its restored interiors and gardens reached the final of the BBC Northern Ireland House of the Year in 2011. It is a private home, so it is one to admire from the road rather than tour.
Walking the River Main
The Cullybackey Millennium Riverwalk follows the curve of the river on a paved, level path linking the village core to the countryside, with benches and interpretive panels along the way. It is an easy stretch for families and dog walkers, and it connects to the ground around Arthur Cottage, so you can pair the heritage with the walk in a single loop.
Getting there and practical information
The Belfast–Derry line, completed through here in 1855, stops at Cullybackey station almost hourly. The station is unstaffed but has ramp access to the platform, tactile paving and a shelter, and the original listed station building is now The Ticket Bakehouse café, doing coffee and pastries for passengers and locals.
- Opening times: Arthur Cottage opens Wednesday to Sunday, 11am–3pm, typically spring and summer. Ring +44 (0) 7867 136220 for group bookings or other times. The riverwalk and village streets are open year-round.
- Parking: free on-street parking along Main Street, with a few more spaces near the station.
- Accessibility: the riverwalk and main streets are level and wheelchair-friendly. Some churches have steps at the door, so contact the congregation ahead if you need assistance.
- Admission: free for the riverwalk and village. Arthur Cottage charges a small fee.
Exploring further
Ballymena is a short hop south by train or car, with Ballymena Castle and the town’s independent shops; see Ballymena for more. North of here, the Antrim Coast and Glens Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty has the sea cliffs, coastal trails and seaside towns such as Ballycastle. If you are relying on public transport, Cullybackey’s roughly hourly trains make it one of the easier rural bases to work from.