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The restaurant at the Manor House is open to non-residents from May to September (11am to 4pm and 6.30pm to 9pm, booking necessary), and there’s a cafe/chip shop at McCuaig’s Bar ( 2076 3974), just east of the harbour. There’s a tiny grocery shop a few paces to the west of the ferry berth (turn left as you come off the pier).

Getting There & Around

A ferry ( 2076 9299; www.rathlinballycastleferry.com) operates daily (adult/child/bicycle return £11/5/3) from Ballycastle; advance booking is recommended in spring and summer. From April to September there are eight or nine crossings a day, half of which are fast catamaran services (20 minutes), the rest via a slower car ferry (45 minutes); in winter the service is reduced.

Only residents can take their car to Rathlin (except for disabled drivers), but nowhere on the island is more than 6km (about 1½ hours’ walk) from the ferry pier. You can hire a bicycle (£8 per day) from Soerneog View Hostel, or take a minibus tour with McGinn’s ( 2076 3451), who also shuttle visitors between the ferry and Kebble Nature Reserve from April to August.

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GLENS OF ANTRIM

The northeastern corner of Antrim is a high plateau of black basalt lava overlying beds of white chalk. Along the coast, between Cushendun and Glenarm, the plateau has been dissected by a series of scenic, glacier-gouged valleys known as the Glens of Antrim.

Two waymarked footpaths traverse the region: the Ulster Way sticks close to the sea, passing through all the coastal villages; while the 32km Moyle Way runs inland across the high plateau from Glenariff Forest Park to Ballycastle.

Torr Head Scenic Road

A few kilometres east of Ballycastle, a minor road signposted Scenic Route branches north off the A2. This alternative route to Cushendun is not for the faint-hearted driver (nor for caravans), as it clings, precarious and narrow, to steep slopes high above the sea. Side roads lead off to the main points of interest – Fair Head, Murlough Bay and Torr Head. On a clear day, there are superb views across the sea to Scotland, from the Mull of Kintyre to the peaks of Arran.

The first turn-off ends at the National Trust car park at Coolanlough, the starting point for a hike to Fair Head (see the boxed text, Click here). The second turn-off leads steeply down to Murlough Bay. From the parking area at the end of this road, you can walk north along the shoreline to some ruined miners’ cottages (10 minutes); coal and chalk were once mined in the cliffs above, and burned in a limekiln (south of the car park) to make quicklime.

The third turn-off leads you past some ruined coastguard houses to the rocky headland of Torr Head, crowned with a 19th-century coastguard station (abandoned in the 1920s). This is Ireland’s closest point to Scotland – the Mull of Kintyre is a mere 19km away across the North Channel. In late spring and summer, a salmon fishery like the one at Carrick-a-Rede operates here, with a net strung out from the headland. The ancient ice house beside the approach road was once used to store the catch.

Cushendun

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The pretty seaside village of Cushendun is famous for its distinctive, Cornish-style cottages, now owned by the National Trust. Built between 1912 and 1925 at the behest of the local landowner, Lord Cushendun, they were designed by Clough Williams-Ellis, the architect of Portmeirion in north Wales. There’s a nice sandy beach, various short coastal walks (outlined on an information board beside the car park), and some impressive caves cut into the overhanging conglomerate sea cliffs south of the village (follow the trail around the far end of the holiday apartments south of the river mouth).

Another natural curiosity lies 6km north of the village on the A2 road to Ballycastle – Loughareema, also known as the Vanishing Lake. Three streams flow in but none flow out. The lough fills up to a respectable size (400m long and 6m deep) after heavy rain, but then the water gradually drains away through fissures in the underlying