Overview
Whitehead is a small village of painted seafront houses on the north shore of Belfast Lough, home to around 3,800 people and the sort of place where the walk, the sail, the golf and the railway museum are all within a few minutes of each other. Its signature is the Blackhead cliff path, cut into the headland by the Victorian engineer Berkeley Deane Wise as a scenic route of steps, ledges and little tunnels round to the lighthouse.
One thing to check before you build a day around that path: it is prone to landslips. It closed in 2018, reopened in 2020 after repairs, then partly closed again in 2021 when the ground gave way once more. Sections have come and gone since, so look up its current state rather than assume the whole route is open.
The Blackhead path and lighthouse
When it is open, the Blackhead Path is the reason most people come. It climbs from the shorefront through wooded gullies and out onto the limestone, with the lighthouse at the far end still working as a navigation light for Belfast Lough. On a clear day the view takes in Islandmagee, across to County Down and the Mourne Mountains, and back toward the Belfast skyline. It is a moderate walk with steep steps and uneven ground, so proper footwear matters.
The village’s tourism desk, the Whitehead Centre on Kings Road, keeps a permanent mural of Whitehead by local historian Steve Diamond and runs his guided walks out to the lighthouse: about two and a half hours, £10 an adult and £5 a child.
Whitehead Railway Museum
A few doors from the promenade, the Whitehead Railway Museum fills the old Excursion Station with the locomotives and carriages of the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland, plus a working shed where volunteers restore them. It is an easy hour or two, good with children, and it covers the rail history that turned Whitehead from a scatter of houses into a commuter and holiday town.
County Antrim Yacht Club
Sailing on the lough centres on the County Antrim Yacht Club, which started life in 1902 as the Whitehead Sailing Club and took its current name in 1909, when the clubhouse was built. It runs Royal Yachting Association courses and dinghy sailing, and the slipway and moorings make a decent focal point for a shorefront photo even if you never get on the water.
Golf at Bentra
Golf here means Bentra, a municipal nine-hole parkland course on Slaughterford Road, laid out by the celebrated designer James Braid. It plays to a par-72 round and once had a claim to being the longest nine-hole course in Europe. There is no professional on site; you book and pay as you play, which keeps it relaxed and cheap by the standards of the coast’s bigger clubs.
Getting there and around
Whitehead is on the A2 coast road and has its own railway station on the Belfast to Larne line, so you can arrive by train without changing. Buses connect to Belfast and Carrickfergus. There is free parking at the Whitehead Recreation Grounds on Castleview Road, at the Blackhead harbour car park, and at the library off Windsor Avenue.
The Whitehead Centre on Kings Road has trail maps, event listings and booking help; its hours shift between summer and winter, so check ahead.
Nearby
- Carrickfergus: a short drive east, with its Norman castle on the harbour and a revitalised waterfront.
- Islandmagee: the peninsula across the bay, home to the cliff-walk of the Gobbins and quiet coastal lanes.
- Larne: the ferry port for Scotland, with a promenade and coast paths running north.
- Antrim Coast and Glens: the wider Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty stretching up the coast, with the bigger cliff walks and glens beyond.
If the Blackhead Path is closed when you visit, the flat shorefront promenade still gives you most of the sea views with none of the steps, and the Diamond Jubilee Wood on the edge of the village, planted in 2012 and the only one of its kind in Northern Ireland, makes an easy alternative walk.