Ballycastle

Ballycastle makes a practical, well-placed base for a Causeway Coast holiday, sitting between the Glens of Antrim and the Giant's Causeway with its own Blue Flag beach on the doorstep. Hotels and guesthouses cluster around the harbour and seafront, many with sea or Rathlin Island views, and the Marine Hotel is the best known of the town's larger properties, with a restaurant and bar looking out over the water. Smaller guesthouses and B&Bs are dotted through the town and along the coast road towards Ballintoy, generally offering better value and a more personal welcome than the bigger coastal resorts further west.

Self-catering cottages are plentiful in and around Ballycastle, ranging from traditional stone cottages to modern coastal houses, and are a popular choice for families or groups wanting a base for several days of exploring, since many of the area's attractions, including Carrick-a-Rede, the Giant's Causeway and Rathlin Island, are all within a 20-30 minute drive or ferry crossing. Booking ahead is strongly advised for the last weekend of August, when the Ould Lammas Fair fills the town and its accommodation well in advance, and for the main summer months generally, when demand along the whole Causeway Coast is at its highest. Outside peak season, Ballycastle tends to be significantly quieter and cheaper than Portrush or Portstewart, while still putting you within easy reach of the coast's main sights.

Ballycastle rewards a slower pace, but it is also within easy reach of some of Northern Ireland's biggest attractions.

• Rathlin Island — a 25-30 minute ferry from Ballycastle harbour to Northern Ireland's only inhabited offshore island, home to a large seabird colony, puffins between April and July, grey seals, and the RSPB West Light Seabird Centre.
• Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge — the famous rope bridge to a small island off the coast near Ballintoy, around a 15-minute drive west, run by the National Trust with pre-booked timed tickets.
• Ballycastle Beach — a long Blue Flag sandy beach right in town, backed by a promenade, play park and putting green, and popular for walking, swimming and watersports.
• Fair Head — dramatic basalt cliffs just east of town with sweeping views across to Rathlin and Scotland, reached via a circular walking route from Ballyvoy.
• Ould Lammas Fair — Ireland's oldest traditional fair, held in the Diamond on the last Monday and Tuesday of August since 1606, famous for market stalls and the local sweet treat, yellowman.
• Giant's Causeway — the UNESCO World Heritage basalt column formation, around a 25-minute drive west along the coast road.
• Ballycastle Golf Club — a parkland and links course laid out along the coastline, with views out to Rathlin and Fair Head from several holes.

The town has a strong seafood-led dining scene given its working harbour. The Salthouse serves freshly caught seafood with ocean views, while Marconi's Bar and Bistro at the Marine Hotel focuses on contemporary dishes with a seafood emphasis. The Lookout offers Italian-leaning food including stone-baked pizzas with sea views, and Thyme & Co is a popular café and pizzeria near the beach using locally sourced ingredients. For a pint, the Anglers Arms on North Street sits directly across from the sea, and around Lammas Fair time look out for yellowman, the local honeycomb-toffee sweet sold from market stalls in the Diamond.

Northern Ireland has no direct equivalent of the Scottish Outdoor Access Code, and wild camping here sits in a legal grey area rather than being a protected right: land is almost always privately owned, and camping without the landowner's permission can technically amount to trespass, even though it is rarely enforced for a single quiet night well away from houses and livestock. Anyone considering pitching up on open ground near Ballycastle, Fair Head or Rathlin Island should seek permission where a landowner or farmer can reasonably be identified, keep well away from roads, gardens and grazing fields, and follow strict Leave No Trace principles, since informal wild camping issues have made a few Antrim beauty spots more sensitive to it in recent years.

The terrain around Ballycastle is dramatic but exposed, with the basalt cliffs of Fair Head, the open moorland behind Ballycastle Forest, and the wind-scoured coastline offering little natural shelter, so a sturdy, well-pegged tent and realistic weather expectations matter even in summer. Established campsites and touring caravan parks around Ballycastle and along the coast towards Ballintoy and Cushendall offer a straightforward, fully legal alternative, usually with showers, hookups and easy access to the beach and harbour, and are the simpler option for anyone not wanting to negotiate access with a landowner.

May to September is the most realistic camping season here, when daylight is long and rainfall is, on average, lower than the winter months, though the north Antrim coast can produce wind and rain at any time of year and campers should pack accordingly. For a more comfortable base with the same coastal views, glamping pods and small camping barns have appeared around the Causeway Coast and Glens in recent years, giving solid shelter and often a fire pit or hot tub while still putting Ballycastle's beach, harbour and Rathlin ferry within easy reach.