Overview
Runkerry House was handed to the Northern Ireland government in 1950 for a reason that only surfaced in declassified files decades later: its owner wanted to keep it out of Catholic hands. Today it’s private apartments, so the house is a landmark rather than a destination – but it’s the landmark on the best stretch of the walk between Portballintrae and the Giant’s Causeway, and the grounds and coast path are free and open year-round. If you’re walking to the Causeway from Portballintrae, this is the finer way in.
History and architecture
The house was built in 1883 by Edward Macnaghten, a barrister, MP and later a Law Lord, who was created Baron Macnaghten in 1887. He commissioned the architect Samuel P. Close to design it in the Scottish-Baronial style – turrets, crow-stepped gables and stone-mullioned windows – on a site above what was then Bushfoot Strand. At its height it had 20 bedrooms and 5.6 hectares (14 acres) of grounds.
The blunt story of its 1950 gift is the one worth telling. Edward’s son, Sir Malcolm Macnaghten, handed the estate to the Stormont government – a property worth roughly £3.25 million in today’s money – and correspondence released years later spelled out why: he wanted to make sure it never became a monastery, convent or seminary. It passed through various public uses, including a rehabilitation centre, before being sold to a developer in the early 2000s and converted into luxury apartments, with townhouses in the old carriage house. The conversion kept the sandstone exterior and the character of the grounds, still listed on the NI Environment & Heritage Gardens Inventory (Reference An 063).
Gardens and grounds
The gardens are a formal Victorian layout softening into the wild coast, and though the apartment complex itself is gated and private, the boundary and the coast path give you the run of the best features:
- Sycamore avenue – the old shaded approach to the entrance.
- Escallonia hedges – dense flowering shrub that colours the grounds through late spring and summer.
- Summer house and carved stone seats – a garden shelter on the lawn with a clear view across the bay.
- The ‘Dodo House’ – an odd little early-20th-century folly that people stop to photograph.
- The old glasshouse – the skeleton of a Victorian conservatory, still visible from the cliff path, alongside the remains of the orchard.
There’s no charge, and no need to book – you’re simply walking a public coast path past a private garden.
Walking the coast
Runkerry House sits directly on the Portballintrae to Giant’s Causeway loop, a moderate, well-signposted coastal walk. From the seafront car park the path crosses the dunes and follows Runkerry Strand below the house, then climbs to the cliff edge and runs on toward the Causeway. It’s the shift in scenery that makes it: Atlantic on one side breaking over basalt, and the hexagonal columns of the Giant’s Causeway opening up ahead. The modern Giant’s Causeway & Bushmills Railway runs along the same coastal corridor, on the route of the old electric tramway through the dunes, if you’d rather ride one leg and walk the other.
Runkerry Strand is a surf beach, and a good one, but the currents are strong and there are no lifeguards, so it’s for the experienced rather than a casual dip.
Practical information
The house is private; the exterior, gardens and coast path are free and open all year.
- Parking: free seafront car park at the end of Beach Road, Portballintrae (BT57 8US), with disabled bays and seasonal toilets.
- Accessibility: the cliff-top path in front of the house is level and suitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs; getting onto the beach itself means uneven sand and dunes.
- Best time to visit: late spring and early summer for the escallonia in flower; winter for storm-watching and the biggest surf.
- Contact: 028 9056 9615 for general enquiries about the estate.
Pair it with the short walk to the nearby Lissanduff Earthworks, or take the heritage railway on toward the Causeway – but if the weather’s fine, just walk the cliff path in front of the house and keep going.