County Antrim - Towns

Ballymoney just 12 miles inland is a busy market town with good shopping. Enjoy a swim or sauna at the Riada Centre or visit the Indoor Bowling Stadium. Drumaheglis Marina is a popular venue for water sports on the River Bann. Game fishing is excellent here. A camping and caravan park overlooks the river. Visitors can travel by horse-and-trap through the park at Leslie Hill Heritage Farm a mile west of Ballymoney.

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The capital of Northern Ireland, Belfast was the only city in Ireland to experience the Industrial Revolution. Its shipbuilding, linen and tobacco industries made it a very wealthy city and this wealth is still noticeable today in its fine public buildings and imposing banks and churches.

Today, Belfast is busily reinventing itself. The optimism generated by the ceasefire combined with recent investment in the city have transformed it into a boom town. Trendy cafes, bars and restaurants are springing up everywhere alongside new apartment blocks and sports complexes. Belfast is a compact city with most of its main streets radiating out from Donegall Square. The imposing City Hall stands in the centre of this square. Built in 1906 in the Classical Renaissance style, it has an elaborate tower at each corner and a central copper dome rising to a height of 53m. Inside, it boasts some fine Italian marble and a luxurious oak-panelled council chamber. The fascinating Linen Hall Library lies on the opposite side of Donegall Square. Established in 1788, the library houses thousands of rare, old books. It also houses extensive documentation of political events in Ireland since 1968 and a huge database of genealogical information. The Grand Opera House on Great Victoria Street is one of Belfast’s great landmarks. Designed by the well-known theatre architect Frank Matcham in 1894, it has a stunning late-Victorian interior. It has recently been restored and is an important venue for operas, ballets and concerts. Pop across the road to the Crown Liquor Saloon and enjoy a drink surrounded by stained and painted glass, ornate mirrors and lots of marbling and mosaics. Dating back to the 1880s, the pub displays Victorian architecture at its most flamboyant. Stroll around The Entries – an area of narrow alleyways just north of High Street. The oldest part of the city, it is home to some of its best pubs.

Belfast has some of the best restaurants in the whole of Ireland. Head for the Golden Mile – the area that stretches from the Crown Liquor Saloon down Great Victoria Street and Dublin Road out onto the Malone and Lisburn Roads – for the best choice. The choices of pubs and cafes are endless and whether you want to dance the night away, see a film, take in a play or attend a traditional music session, you will be well catered for.

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Several well known daffodil breeders have lived at Broughshane and the village gardens in spring are bright with drifts of daffodils and narcissi. Rare bulbs directly descended from daffodils created by Guy Wilson, a distinguished Broughshane hybridist can be obtained from the Carncairn nursery.

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Three miles (5km) south of Portrush is the little town of Bushmills, noted for its distillery which can be visited (the oldest licenced in the world) and for salmon and trout fishing on the River Bush. Can be used as an inland base from which to explore the North Antrim coast.

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Three miles beyond Glenarm, Carnlough has a fine situation on a crescent bay with a good sandy beach, at the mouth of one of the smaller Antrim Glens, Glencoy. The limestone bridge over the main street was built for the Marquis of Londonderry to carry stone from the quarries to the harbour, now a popular port of call for sailors. The Londonderry Arms was once owned by Winston Churchill.

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