The Causeway Coast stretches 30 miles from the mouth of the River Foyle in the West to the Glendun River in the East. We last visited Magilligan Point in the west in December 2019:
but on this occasion in warm March weather, a shorter journey took us to Portstewart promenade. We began our walk at the harbour.
The shore is very rocky here. As it was so warm, we sat down and had an ice cream from Morellis who have been selling it since 1911. The beach here is very small
but further west of the town are the Portstewart Strand and Downhill beaches. Back at the harbour end you can walk down to the Herring Pond which has views over to Portrush.
We arrived in Portrush hoping to have a browse in the secondhand bookshop. The ‘open’ sign was on the door and the lights were on but the door was locked. We had a wander around town and down to the harbour.
Further along the coast is Magheracross viewpoint which looks towards Dunluce Castle and on a clear day the Skerries, a small group of islands.
There were some hang gliders above us.
We had lunch at Shell Beach, Portballintrae which has views over to Runkerry Beach. I found a fair bit of sea glass here.
Whitepark Bay is a SSI and sheep and cattle graze behind the dunes.
There are the remains of a ‘hedge school’ for young gentlemen. The beach has a lot of stones and you can find ammonite and belemite fossils here sometimes.
Our final stop was Ballycastle. It is one of only two places in Northern Ireland that was associated with coal mining and it also had a glassworks which ceased production in 1791. You can take the ferry here to Rathlin Island which we did previously.
The Glenshesk River estuary is in the bay and there are views towards Fairhead.
