Divis is the highest of the Belfast Hills at 478m (1,568ft), close enough to the city that the M1 hums below and high enough that the summit makes its own weather. On a clear day the view runs from Belfast Lough and Lough Neagh to the Mourne Mountains, the Sperrins and across to Scotland; on a bad one you’ll see the next marker post and little else. The name is from the Irish Dubhais, ‘black ridge’, for the dark basalt that caps it.
The National Trust has owned the hill since 2004, when it took over what had been a Ministry of Defence training ground and opened it as public access land. It’s free, open all the time, and the largest stretch of open country you can reach this easily from Belfast.
One thing to know first
There is no safe or legal way to walk to the hill from the main road. Long stretches of Divis Road have no footpath, and people do get caught out trying. Drive to the car park, take a taxi, or use the 6A or 6B bus – don’t set off on foot along the road.
Walking the trails
The way-marked routes start from the Divis Barn car park. The one most people do is the Summit Trail, 4.8km (3 miles) of steady climbing past a small pond and a kissing gate to the trig pillar at the top – the obvious choice if you’re only doing one walk. The Ridge Trail (6.8km / 4.2 miles) carries on across to Black Mountain beneath the transmitter masts for more views toward the Causeway Coast. For an easy, mostly flat option, the Lough Trail (1.5km / 0.9 miles) loops the heath and pond near the Long Barn and suits buggies and, with care, wheelchairs. The Heath Trail (6.4km / 4 miles) is closed for habitat restoration at the time of writing.
History and landscape
The slopes hold traces of people going back millennia – Bronze-Age hut circles, ringforts and old field systems, and a cairn near Armstrong’s Hill known as Carn Sheáin Bhuí (Yellow John’s cairn). In the 20th century Divis was a rifle range and then a military communications site from 1953 to 1999. After the Trust took over in 2004 it rebuilt the paths and laid a floating boardwalk to carry walkers over the boggy ground near the top.
The original trig pillar was taken down in the early 1970s to make room for the transmitting station’s masts and spent years in storage at Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland. It was put back on the summit in May 2013, and that’s where it stands now. A 2023 National Lottery Heritage Fund grant is funding further work on the trails and habitats.
Wildlife
Heather, gorse and bilberry cover the heath, and the blanket bog holds sphagnum moss and the insects that go with it. Skylarks and meadow pipits sing over the grass; snipe, curlew and red grouse keep to the bog; buzzards and peregrines work the ridge, and you may catch a cuckoo, greenfinch or owl in season. Badgers and hares use the slopes, and the Trust records buzzard sightings here as environmental data. From spring to late autumn, free-range cattle graze the higher ground, so keep dogs on a lead near them.
Practical information
- Parking: The lower car park is free and open 24 hours. The upper car park and its toilets are closed for improvement works until May 2027, so use the lower one. From there, cross the road and follow the gravel path (or the tarmac road) about 700m uphill through a swing gate to the café; that stretch is manageable for wheelchairs and mobility scooters with someone to help.
- Café and toilets: The Divis Barn café opens seasonally, spring to autumn, with toilets at the café including a Changing Places facility.
- Getting there: By car, M1 to Junction 2, then the A55 to Upper Springfield Road and left onto Divis Road; the car park is on the left after about 0.5 miles. By bus, the 6A and 6B stop near the Long Barn. (See the warning above about not walking from the road.)
- On the hill: The summit is exposed and the weather turns fast, so bring a windproof layer whatever the forecast says, wear proper footwear, and stay on the marked paths through the ground-nesting bird season.