The Antrim coast is cut by the Nine Glens of Antrim, radiating inland from the sea. These five are the ones closest to Ballycastle.
Glenariff (Gleann Aireamh)
Known as the “Queen of the Glens,” Glenariff is the largest and best-known of the nine, with waterfalls and around 900 hectares of woodland. The road in passes through the Red Bay Arch, built by local landowner Francis Turnly in 1817, near Red Bay Harbour, once used to export iron ore.
The main attraction is Glenariff Forest Park, begun around a century ago and now covering roughly 1,185 hectares, with walking trails from 1km to 9km. The waterfall trail is the pick of them — a path down a steep, wooded gorge past a series of waterfalls, at their most dramatic after heavy rain. Waterfoot village, at the foot of the glen, gives access to a beach used by heron, shelduck, kingfisher, ringed plover, oystercatcher, gannet, and eider duck.
Glencloy (Gleann Clat)
Glencloy takes its name from stone field boundaries in the upper glen, some dating to the Bronze Age; excavations at Bay Farm have turned up evidence of Neolithic occupation around 4000 BC. Two miles up the glen from Carnlough is Doonan Waterfall, with a quiet picnic spot, and nearby Doonan Fort — a rath, or stockade homestead, built over 1,200 years ago. Garron Tower, on a high ledge at Garron Point, was built as a summer residence by Frances Anne, Marchioness of Londonderry; it later became a school and is now a co-educational day school.
Glendun (Gleann Duinne)
The most tranquil rather than the largest of the glens, Glendun runs beneath the Glendun Viaduct down to Cushendall, past the Mass Rock (where Mass was said in the days before a church was built — an annual procession still marks the spot), the Gloonan Stone (associated with St. Patrick, its worn holes said to hold water with healing power), and the ivy-covered ruin of Castle Carra, where in 1585 Sorley Boy MacDonnell is said to have rescued his son from Scottish captors.
The Glendun Viaduct itself — known locally as the “Big Bridge” — was built 1837–39, and is one of the finest structures of its kind in Ireland, part of a coast road connecting Ballycastle and Ballymena. William Bald surveyed the wider Coast Road, while the three-arched viaduct itself was designed by Charles Lanyon (later Sir Charles, and Lord Mayor of Belfast), newly appointed County Surveyor of Antrim and only 24 when construction began. It was built during a period of real hardship for local farmers, many of whom worked the project for a shilling a day or less: stone was quarried at Layde, boated to Cushendun, then carted to the site, where local labourers earned ten pence a day. A foreman travelled to Ballycastle each month, escorted by two strong men, to collect the workers’ wages. The bridge has taken its share of knocks since — in the 1970s, an out-of-control lorry demolished part of its parapet wall during an icy spell — but has always been repaired and remains in daily use.
Glenshesk (Gleann Seisce)
Glenshesk runs from behind Knocklayde mountain down to Ballycastle Bay, where it meets Glentaisie. Its lower ground, by Ballycastle Golf Course, was once a battleground between the MacDonnells, MacQuillans, and McNeills — and Bonamargy Friary, nearby, holds the graves of many of them.
Glentaisie
The first of the Nine Glens, Glentaisie runs from the front of Knocklayde down to Ballycastle Bay, following the River Toe past the old narrow-gauge railway bridge and Ballycastle Forest. Local tradition holds it’s named for Princess Taisie, daughter of a King Donn of Rathlin Island.