Ireland (Lonely Planet, 9th Edition) - Fionn Davenport [594]
Getting There & Away
There’s an hourly train service between Carrickfergus and Belfast (£4, 30 minutes).
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INLAND COUNTY ANTRIM
To the west of the high moorland plateau above the Glens of Antrim, the hills slope down to the agricultural lowlands of Lough Neagh and the broad valley of the River Bann. This region is rarely visited by tourists, who either take the coast road or speed through on the way from Belfast to Derry, but there are a few places worth seeking out if you have time to spare.
Antrim Town
pop 19,800
The town of Antrim (Aontroim) straddles the River Sixmilewater, close to an attractive bay on the shores of Lough Neagh. During the 1798 Rising, the United Irishmen fought a pitched battle along the length of the town’s High St.
The tourist information centre ( 9442 8331; info@antrim.gov.uk; 16 High St; 9am-5.30pm Mon-Fri & 10am-3pm Sat Jul & Aug, 9am-5pm Mon-Fri & 10am-1pm Sat May, Jun & Sep, 9am-5pm Mon-Fri Oct-Apr) provides a free, self-guided heritage trail leaflet, and has internet access for £1.50 per 30 minutes.
The town centre is dominated by a bleakly modern shopping mall, but a few older buildings survive, including the fine courthouse, which dates back to 1762. Beyond the courthouse is the Barbican Gate (1818) and a portion of the old castle walls.
Pass through the gate and the underpass beyond to reach Antrim Castle Gardens (admission free; 9.30am-dusk Mon-Fri, 10am-5pm Sat, 2-5pm Sun). The castle burned down many years ago, but the grounds remain as one of the few surviving examples of a 17th-century ornamental garden.
Lough Rd leads west from the town centre to Antrim Lough Shore Park, where the vast size of Lough Neagh (see the boxed text, Click here) is apparent. There are picnic tables and lakeside walking trails.
The vintage launch Maid of Antrim ( 2582 2159; www.loughneaghcruises.co.uk), built on Scotland’s River Clyde in 1963, offers cruises on the lough on Sunday afternoons from Easter to October.
Goldline Express 219 from Belfast to Ballymena stops in Antrim (£4, 40 minutes, hourly Monday to Friday, seven on Saturday). There are also frequent trains from Belfast to Antrim (£5, 25 minutes, 10 daily Monday to Saturday, five on Sunday) continuing to Derry.
Ballymena
pop 29,200
Ballymena (An Baile Meánach) is the home turf of Ian Paisley, the founder of the Free Presbyterian Church and the stridently anti-Nationalist and anti-Catholic Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), who served as First Minister of Northern Ireland until 2008. The town council was the first to be controlled by the DUP in 1977 and voted unanimously to remove all mention of Darwin’s theory of evolution from religious education in Ballymena’s schools. The town is also the birthplace of the actor Liam Neeson, of Schindler’s List and Star Wars fame.
The Ecos Environmental Centre ( 2566 4400; www.ecoscentre.com; Broughshane Rd; admission free; 9am-4pm Mon-Fri, noon-4pm Sat & Sun Easter week & Jun-Aug, 9am-4pm Mon-Fri Sep & Oct), on the eastern edge of town, is a visitor centre dedicated to alternative energy sources and sustainable technology – the centre’s waste water is filtered through reed beds, and used to irrigate nearby willow coppices, which provide fuel for heating and electricity, supplemented by solar panels. There are lots of hands-on exhibits to keep the kids amused, plus a picnic-and-play area, a pond with ducks to feed, and radio-controlled boats to play with.
Goldline Express 219 goes to Ballymena from Belfast (£6, one hour, hourly Monday to Friday, seven Saturday). Bus 128 goes to Carnlough on the coast (£4, one hour, five daily Monday to Friday, one Saturday).
Trains from Belfast run more frequently (£7, 10 daily Monday to Saturday, five on Sunday); Ballymena is on the Derry