Ireland (Lonely Planet, 9th Edition) - Fionn Davenport [581]
Getting There & Around
The bus terminal is near the Dunluce Centre. Bus 140 links Portrush with Coleraine (£2, 20 minutes) and Portstewart (£2, 20 to 30 minutes) every 30 minutes or so. Also see Getting There & Around, Click here.
The train station is just south of the harbour. Portrush is served by trains from Coleraine (£2, 12 minutes, hourly Monday to Saturday, 10 on Sunday), where there are connections to Belfast or Derry.
For taxis call Andy Brown’s ( 7082 2223) or North West Taxis ( 7082 4446). Both are near the town hall. A taxi to Kelly’s is around £6, and it’s £12 to the Giant’s Causeway.
Return to beginning of chapter
DUNLUCE CASTLE
Views along the Causeway Coast between Portrush and Portballintrae are dominated by the ruins of Dunluce Castle ( 2073 1938; 87 Dunluce Rd; adult/child £2/1; 10am-6pm Easter-Sep, 10am-4pm Oct-Easter, last admission 30 min before closing), perched atop a dramatic basalt crag. In the 16th and 17th centuries it was the seat of the MacDonnell family (the earls of Antrim from 1620), who built a Renaissance-style manor house within the walls. Part of the castle, including the kitchen, collapsed into the sea in 1639, taking seven servants and that night’s dinner with it.
A narrow bridge leads from the mainland courtyard across a dizzying gap to the main part of the fortress. Below, a path leads down from the gatehouse to the Mermaid’s Cave beneath the castle crag.
Dunluce is 5km east of Portrush, a one-hour walk away along the coastal path. All the buses that run along the coast stop at Dunluce Castle; Click here.
Return to beginning of chapter
PORTBALLINTRAE
pop 750
During WWI, Portballintrae was the only place in the UK to be shelled by a German submarine. And that’s pretty much its only claim to fame. A once-pretty village set around a sand-fringed, horseshoe bay with a tiny harbour, today it suffers from rampant overdevelopment, with modern holiday apartments everywhere (fewer than half of the houses are permanently occupied). The village is an easy 2km walk from Bushmills, and 2.5km from the Giant’s Causeway. The fine sandy beach of Bushfoot Strand stretches for 1.5km to the northeast.
Return to beginning of chapter
BUSHMILLS
pop 1350
The small town of Bushmills has long been a place of pilgrimage for connoisseurs of Irish whiskey. A good youth hostel and a restored rail link with the Giant’s Causeway have also made it an attractive stop for hikers exploring the Causeway Coast.
Sights
Bushmills Distillery ( 2073 3218; www.bushmills.com; Distillery Rd; adult/child £6/3; 9.15am-5pm Mon-Sat & noon-5pm Sun Apr-Oct, 9.15am-5pm Mon-Sat & noon-4pm Sun Mar, 9.30am-3.30pm Mon-Fri & 12.30-3.30pm Sat & Sun Nov-Feb) is the world’s oldest legal distillery, having been granted a licence by King James I in 1608. Bushmills whiskey is made with Irish barley and water from St Columb’s Rill, a tributary of the River Bush, and matured in oak barrels. During ageing, the alcohol content drops from around 60% to 40%; the spirit lost through evaporation is known, rather sweetly, as ‘the angels’ share’. After a tour of the distillery you’re rewarded with a free sample (or a soft drink), and four lucky volunteers get a whiskey-tasting session to compare Bushmills with other brands. Tours begin every 30 minutes, and there’s late opening (last tour 6pm) on Wednesday and Thursday in August.
The Giant’s Causeway & Bushmills Railway ( 2073 2844; www.freewebs.com/giantscausewayrailway; adult/child return £6.75/4.75) follows the route of a 19th-century tourist tramway for 3km from Bushmills to below the Giant’s Causeway visitor centre. The narrow-gauge line and locomotives (two steam and one diesel) were brought from a private line on the shores of Lough Neagh. Trains run hourly between 11am and 5.30pm, departing on the hour from the Causeway, on the half-hour from Bushmills, daily in July and August, weekends only from Easter to June and September and October.
Sleeping & Eating
Mill Rest Youth Hostel ( 2073 1222; www.hini.org.uk;