Antrim trip

[coxy]

Hi lads,
Have a few tosser friends coming over from England and I'm planning to take them on a trip from Dublin up the Antrim coast. We hope to leave Dublin on Saturday morning and get back on Monday night so am looking for some pointers.
Option 1:The plan is to head up through Belfast and get to the A2 and then stick to the coastline through Carrickfergus, Larne, Cushendall, and around to Bushmills. Qustion is how long would this trip take at a nice relaxed sightseeing pace, and if I'm staying in Bushmills on the Sunday night can anyone recommend somewhere for the Saturday night.
Option 2: Do you think this trip is too short and could we make Bushmills on the Saturday evening after a leisurly ride and stay there for Saturday night, then head further into Donegal on the Sunday morning and stay on the west coast on Sunday night, then make our way home to Dublin Monday?
The aim is just to take it easy for the weekend, it's all about the journey and not the destination.
any advice would be welcome,
Thanks

 

[the civil one]

At a leisurely pace you could easily base yourself in Bushmills on the Sat
night , but after you have been to the Distillery , , the giants Causeway ,
and the Carrick-a-reed rope bridge there is precious little to hold you there.{ Its REALLY boring }
not even a decent eaterie.
Ballycastle will have a bit of life on a Sat night , { more than BushMills}
Portrush is a good call if you wanna Dance , there are a few good
Restaurants in the port as well . Accomadation is Abundant , and
now that the NW200 is over , its back to normal rates.
I reckon you could do worse than Base yourself in Portrush , on the Sat night.
Head on towards Derry , then Donegal on the Sunday ,with an aim of
South Donegal Sunday Night ,then the Main Road back to Dublin From
Sligo .

 

[the civil one]

Just my opinion .
I have been Wrong in the Past .
Once .

 

[spikerjack 46]

The bold civil is right.

Not much to do in Bushmills at night unless your intention is to tank yerselves

up on the local soup, but then again you can do that anywhere.

Ballycastle's good craic with lots of pubs with strange closing hours, and there's

a decent B&B overlooking the harbour as you go up the hill on the left. (1st

house)

 

[Flintlock]

You might want to consider a wee detour through the Mournes on the way up. You would be close to them at Newry. Newry-Warrenpoint-Rostrevor-Hilltown-Spelga-Newcastle (all day fry at Cafe Creme) Newcastle up to Belfast for your trip up to Bushmills.

 

[nud1e]

give Carrick and Larne a miss

Carrickfergus has a castle, if you want a look. Larne is a place to catch a ferry.
I would avoid both and take the M2 out of Belfast, there's a great climb up from the foreshore that's great from testing the pulling power of your bike in top gear. Peel off at Mallusk (2nd exit on the roundabout for Hurst's BMW), take the 3rd for the Larne road.
Coming into Larne, take the first turn off at the roundabout on the dual carriageway. This is Drumahoe Road, right at the T junction, then left onto the Ballymullock Road, left at the T junction, through Carncastle and straight on until you join the Coast Road. Larne and Ballygally aren't any loss, and the Coast Road gets better from now on.
Go on to Cushendun by turning right off the A2 at the Tower in Cushendall, Keep left and climb the hill, bear right as you go up. Enjoy the view. When you drop down to Cushendun, turn right at the T junction and into Cushendun.
Through Cushendun, then take a right onto the Torr Head Road. I usually ride it in the opposite direction <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zV6OmU2tYZI&hl=en_GB&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zV6OmU2tYZI&hl=en_GB&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>but it's a fun run either way. Take care, this is a road full of distractions.
On to Ballycastle, then to Carrick-a-Rede for the rope bridge. Ballintoy is worth a diversion, look out for the strange house - Bendhu House on the road down to the harbour.
The rest of the North Coast has multiple attractions.

Need to get back up there again.

 

[batandball617]

You might want to consider a wee detour through the Mournes on the way up. You would be close to them at Newry. Newry-Warrenpoint-Rostrevor-Hilltown-Spelga-Newcastle (all day fry at Cafe Creme) Newcastle up to Belfast for your trip up to Bushmills.

Would agree with Esoxlucius, this would be much more interesting than going Up the A1.

Can't comment about Cafe Creme as we normally go to Sea Salt for our grub.

Carrick to Larne via the coast isn't too bad either.

 

[coughan]

Go up the A2 coast road from Larne and stay in Portrush. Visit the above sights - dunluce castle was pictured on a led zep album btw. Head off towards Magilligan and take ferry to greencastle and head up to Malin Head. Fromt here round to dufannaghy and west donegal. Did it last week and it was brill

 

[sijohnston]

all great advice. definitely go to ballycastle on the sat night for some fiddly de music!

 

[Twister]

Something else to bear in mind. Portrush may be busy on Saturday afternoon/night as the RNLI Raft Race is on. Generally a few thousand people about. Heading up the coast road a run myself on Saturday from Belfast. Maybe see you all along the road.

 

[Deleted account 220427002]

I take it you looked at this
http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49439

the raft race is not till the 29th so you'd be ok if it's this weekend
but i differ from what others say.... i'd say stay away from Portrush for a stay.... it's a seaside town with all the tackiness that comes with it... on the weekend the place if full of young people getting pissed the few good bars are always too packed for comfort as are the restaurants there have been quite a few incidents of cars etc getting damaged late on if parked on the main streets

You could stay at the smuggles inn in bushmills it has good food and a bar it's about half a mile from the town but near to the causeway

also a good place would be the http://www.fullertonarms.com/accommodation.php in Ballintoy advantage to this is your near most of the good places to visit and is a small village and has live trad music if you want it

Ballycastle is OK if you find somewhere pretty handy to stay.. but i'd travel a bit further on if i were you.. if you get to the likes of ballintoy early enough you can drop all your gear off and go to all the big sightseeing places where are all within a few miles of the village.

i'd say nud1e has it about right with his info

also if you stay close to the causeway get up at about 7 and ride your bikes down into the causeway as it's empty at that time in the morning

 

[coxy]

Antrim Trip

Thanks for all the info lads. Yes I did see that thread before and it's what made me want to head north instead of over to the Galway area I'm looking forward to the trip, it's short but should be good. If any of you are around that area Saturday next week and see a few tossers sightseeing then come over and say hello, would be nice to put faces to all the names.
all the best,
Coxy

 

[ChubbyThumper]

Sunday

For the Sunday I would visit Binevenagh en route to the Magilligan ferry (£7.50 return) to Greencastle in Donegal. From there head up to Malin head. Pics from last weekend

Binevenagh


Carpark on the way up Bishops road. NW200 weekend looking towards Donegal. Ferry at the narrows




Malin Head



Sorry about the bike, damned KTMs always getting in first