A 5 Day Northern Ireland Road Trip

Northern Ireland is the part of the island most visitors skip, usually because they have limited time and the Wild Atlantic Way has better marketing. That is their loss and your gain, because on this Northern Ireland road trip the north coast is as good as anything in the west and considerably quieter.

This is a five day loop from Dublin. The pace is deliberately relaxed, with two to three hours of driving at most on any day, which leaves real time at each stop rather than a series of car park photographs.

You need a car. Pack for all four seasons, because you will get them.

At a glance

• Start and end: Dublin
• Driving: two to three hours maximum per day
• Base towns: Belfast for the first nights, the north coast for the last
• Fitness: activities suit varying levels, nothing technical

Day 1: Dublin to Belfast, via the Mournes

Head north with a coastal stop in Skerries for breakfast. Goat in the Boat is the cafe to know there, good pastries and coffee with a view of the harbour to go with it.

Drive through the Mourne Mountains by way of Kilkeel and Newcastle. Murlough Beach is the stop worth making, a long stretch of sand with the Mournes standing behind it.

Belfast by lunchtime, and Edo Restaurant is worth the detour if you can get a table, a Michelin Bib Gourmand spot that does not take itself too seriously about it. Spend the afternoon in the city on foot, or take a black cab tour, which is the single most useful two hours you can spend understanding the place. The Merchant Hotel is the one to book if you want the grand version of Belfast, Victorian on the outside and a rooftop hot tub on top. For the evening, The Dirty Onion and its upstairs room, Yardbird, do live music and a proper pint without the tourist markup.

If a city stop does not appeal, trade Belfast in for a few hours on Slieve Bearnagh instead. It is the granite tor summit in the shot below, and one of the best short hikes the Mournes has.

Day 2: Belfast, Glenariff and Fair Head

Breakfast at The Pocket Cafe, a small, well-run spot with proper coffee, before Titanic Belfast in the morning, which earns its reputation.

Then about an hour's drive to Glenariff Forest Park. Park at Laragh Lodge at the bottom and walk up through the glen, which is waterfalls and steep wooded sides most of the way. Laragh Lodge itself does a solid lunch if you time the walk to finish there hungry.

Afternoon at Fair Head, a dramatic headland on the north Antrim coast and a favourite of climbers. The land is owned by a local farmer who lets people walk it, so stay on the path and treat it accordingly. Dinner at Mortons in Ballycastle, about as honest a fish and chips as you will find anywhere in Ireland or the UK. Stay at North Coast 9, a small glamping site with proper pods rather than a tent with delusions.

Day 3: The Antrim Coast

If the forecast looks clear, get up early for sunrise at the Dark Hedges, the beech tree avenue that Game of Thrones made famous. Breakfast after at Ursa Minor in Ballycastle, one of my favourite small cafes in Northern Ireland.

From Ballycastle it is a short drive to Kinbane Head, with a castle ruin perched on the cliff above the sea, and on to the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, a thirty metre suspension crossing that is worth the nerve. Lunch in Bushmills, then a tour and tasting at the Bushmills Distillery, the oldest licensed whiskey distillery in Ireland. Back to Ballycastle for dinner and another night at your north coast base.

Day 4: Giant's Causeway and Dunluce

Breakfast at Bilberry Mill Cafe, a genuinely cosy spot to fuel up before the busiest stop on the trip.

The Causeway in the morning. It is the busiest site in Northern Ireland and there is no clever way around that, so go early and walk further along the coast than most people do. Lunch at The Nook close by, traditional Irish food alongside a few international options if the group cannot agree.

Dunluce Castle in the afternoon, a ruin on a cliff edge that looks staged and is not.

Then stop moving. After three days on the road the right thing to do is check into a forest cabin with an outdoor bath and process what you have seen. Burrenmore Nest does exactly that job, tucked into forest with Mussenden Temple across the road for the morning after. If you would rather go out, Urban Restaurant in Portrush is a solid dinner option on the way.

Day 5: Mussenden Temple, Benone and home

Mussenden Temple is essentially across the road from where you woke up, a small classical rotunda on a cliff edge above the Atlantic.

Then down to Benone Beach, one of the longest beaches in Northern Ireland, and walk it with the temple up on the cliff behind you. Lunch nearby, then the drive back to Dublin.