Ballycastle Beach runs about 1.2km along the seafront, from the pier at Ballycastle Marina in the west to Pans Rock in the east, backed for most of its length by Ballycastle Golf Course. It’s mostly sand with some shingle, set against the backdrop of Fair Head, and is a Seaside Award beach.
Swimming is popular and generally safe, though colder than you’d expect — RNLI lifeguards are on duty daily from 10am to 6pm through July and August. Dogs are welcome on the beach outside the restricted period of 1 June to 15 September.
What to look for
At the eastern end, the beach forms part of the Ballycastle Coalfield ASSI — Ireland’s best exposure of a complete coalfield sequence, with Carboniferous sedimentary rock 335–330 million years old and younger volcanic rock around 60 million years old, the same activity that shaped the Giant’s Causeway. Fossils found here include goniatites, fish remains, and giant clubmosses.
That coal seam shaped the town’s history as much as its geology. Salt production along this shore predates written record — the salt stores here were valuable enough to be seized in 1689 — and coal from the cliffs fuelled the salt pans long before it was ever exported. When Hugh Boyd took charge of the collieries in the 1720s and 30s, he studied mining methods at Whitehaven in England, then opened three new mines and built a tramway to move coal at scale for the first time — coal that, by his own account, broke English and Scottish colliers’ pricing grip on Dublin and Belfast’s industries.
Beyond that, look for a rock formation hiding what locals call the Devil’s Churn — a hole in the rock forming an underwater tunnel to the sea, dramatic to watch as it floods and empties with the tide. See Pans Rock for more on the landmark itself.
At the western end, a stone footbridge over the Margy gives access from the seafront promenade — worth stopping halfway across to watch the fish.
Getting there
Walk from Ballycastle promenade over the footbridge, or follow the A2 coast road and take the first left onto Carrickmore Road for parking.