Knocklayde towers over Ballycastle at 514 metres and is visible for miles around. Access is via the Glenshesk side, through a local farmer’s yard — ask permission to park and cross the farm to the base of the mountain. It’s a steep climb, not for the faint-hearted, but doesn’t require any technical experience, just a reasonable level of fitness and proper footwear.
A winter ascent
One January morning, setting off from the Ballycastle Forest car park on Glenshesk Road at 8:40am, just above freezing and before sunrise: a steep tarmac climb, then a dirt track for about 500m before turning to face the mountain directly, ending at a gate and the forest edge.
The apparent “gentle option” turned out to be anything but — the trick, learned the hard way, is to zigzag rather than go straight up. The summit came at around 10am, the ground frozen solid with a crisp layer of snow and ice, the sun just clearing the clouds. From the top, Ballycastle sits laid out below, small and sunlit. The walk back down, the same way, took about half an hour.
It’s a walk worth doing in any season, but a clear winter morning — cold enough to need a flask of soup and gloves you don’t take off for long — has its own particular reward.