A road fit for giants | The Antrim coast road

Where does it start? Londonderry

Where does it end? Belfast

How long is it? 124 miles

 

Why is it great?

What have a dead diplomat, Sir Winston Churchill and a cult TV series in common?

The glorious Antrim Coast Road, that’s what. I’ve done this countless times, but still love riding it or showing it to visitors as one of the great routes anywhere.

Leaving Derry, it’s a fast road to Bushmills village, home of the world’s oldest licensed distillery, with a licence granted in 1608, several tours daily and a shop.

Next stop is the world-famous Giant’s Causeway. The fairy story goes that these 37,000 basalt columns are the result of a huge subterranean explosion 60 million years ago, but locals know the cold scientific truth – that they’re the remnants of a causeway built by a Scottish giant so he could come over and fight local giant Finn McCool.

Thinking quickly, Finn’s wife tucked Finn up in a cot, and the Scottish giant thought: “If that’s the size of Finn’s baby, I’m out of here”, and fled back to Scotland, tearing up the causeway as he went.

After that it’s the clifftop ruins of Dunluce Castle, the kitchen of which fell into the sea in 1639, taking seven cooks with it.

At Carrick-a-Rede, walk a swaying rope bridge 80ft above the sea to an island, give yourself a pat on the back, then realise you have to walk back again.

In Ballycastle, have an ice cream in harbourside Maud’s, and try the local speciality dried seaweed, dulce (pronounced duls), then half a mile out of town, turn left for the winding road to Torr Head, and after six miles turn left on the Murlough Road for spectacular Murlough Bay.

You can see why former British diplomat Sir Roger Casement asked before he was executed for treason in 1916 to be buried here.

Cushendun, the next stop, was designed as a Cornish-style village by Clough Williams-Ellis, whose Portmeirion in Wales was the setting for The Prisoner, and in Carnlough, the cosy Londonderry Arms Hotel was once owned by Churchill.

 

What do I need to know?

Leave a full day for this ride if you can. It’s too good to rush.

At the Giant’s Causeway, the walk down to the stones is free, but parking and the visitor centre admission is a steep £11.50 per person.

Instead, park for free at the Causeway Hotel next door and spend the money on lunch.

 

Anything Else?

If you’re on a lazy schedule, have lunch or stay at the Bushmills Inn, with open turf fires, cosy nooks, exposed oak beams, gas-lit bar, secret library, heli-pad, private cinema and its very own whiskey blended by the distillery down the street.

If you’re running short of time, at Larne just take the fast A8 dual carriageway and motorway to Belfast rather than the scenic coast road I’ve suggested.