Mikko Nieminen reports…
Pics: Geoff Hill and Mikko Nieminen
The Antrim Coast Road is one of the top rides in the UK, but I would be lying if I said that this was a great winter ride from start to finish. Not because the coast road itself isn’t great (it really is!), but because I had to get there first, and I was in the English Midlands. With time being of the essence, that meant a long slog on motorways to get to where I wanted to be.
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Slowly but surely things did improve though. I had picked a Stena Line crossing from Cairnryan in Scotland to Belfast in Northern Ireland, and once I had said goodbye to the motorways that took me from England to Scotland, the A75 to the coast was a huge improvement. It’s a big, fast road that at times offers wild views of the Irish Sea while serving the most delicious set of bends. It’s difficult to concentrate on both the road and the scenery at the same time. Things were improving, for sure.
I had been lucky with the weather most of the way, but by the time I got to the ferry terminal in Cairnryan it was raining. And as soon as we set sail, the captain announced that the crossing would be a rough one, with gale-force winds blowing over the Irish Sea.
It wasn’t too bad, though. The ferry ploughed through the waves, gently swaying, which made me more sleepy than worried… until I started Googling Belfast sights and got to the Titanic Museum. I quickly moved on…
Talking about the crossing, here’s a pro tip: The Stena Line ferries are full of things to do from shopping to cinema, and all manner of dining options, so you won’t get bored, but the smart money goes for the Stena+ lounge access. It only costs £20 but includes comfy seating plus all the snacks and drinks you can manage. You have over two hours to get your money’s worth, so basically it pays for itself.
The Antrim Coast Road takes less than a day to do, but with photo stops and possible detours, I wanted to give it a full day. Also, that gave me the perfect excuse to stay at my mate Geoff Hill’s place in Belfast before hitting the road. I really wish Geoff ran his place as an Airbnb, so more people could enjoy it. He has a proper Finnish sauna; he tells fabulous stories from his travels; and he keeps relentlessly filling your glass until you see it in double vision, and you realise it’s probably best not to pick it up anymore. Unfortunately, I can’t extend the invite to you all to go and stay with him, but you can enjoy his terrific writing and fascinating stories in his motorcycle travel books (do a quick Amazon search).
If you ask the Northern Irish traffic planning authorities, the first rule of promoting the Antrim Coast Road is that you don’t talk about the Antrim Coast Road. Instead, as you will soon notice on all the road signs guiding your way around it, you talk about the Causeway Coastal Route. I’m sure that many important people attended many important branding meetings before that happened. But I digress…
Geoff and I started the ride from Belfast, following the coast north. There are a couple of ways to get to Larne from Belfast, but it doesn’t really matter too much which way you choose, as it’s from Larne onwards that the interesting bit of the route starts.
As soon as you leave Larne, the Antrim Coast Road opens up. It follows the coast as close to the water as you possibly can, providing wonderful views of the Irish Sea. There are gentle corners that seem to be hanging over the sea, little tunnels through the cliffs, and a sense of freedom you only get this close to the seaside.
Riding is not fast here. The road is not really suited to speed, and it goes through a number of villages. The best thing to do is to just take it easy and enjoy the views.
You are tempted to stop and take photos at almost every bend and every village, but Geoff and I managed to push on until Carnlough before jumping off our bikes and sniffing the air for a brew. Incidentally, this is where you can find the Londonderry Arms Hotel, once owned by Winston Churchill, right on the main street. However, that was no good to us as it was closed on Mondays, and it was indeed Monday when we knocked on the door. Not to worry, we picked a café by the little harbour, just in time to dive in before the rain caught up with us.
By the time we were out again the rain had gone, and we continued north in glorious sunshine. The next stop was at Cushendun, a village with Cornish-style houses designed by Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis. Not quite what you’d expect to see in Northern Ireland…
Our ride took a little diversion from the Antrim Coast Road to incorporate a bit of the Torr Head Route to get to Murlough Bay, a beautiful and wonderfully quiet little spot at the end of a single-track road. It’s a detour from the main road, no doubt about that, but it’s one definitely worth taking.
The Torr Head Route is nice riding, too, although I couldn’t help myself giggling most of the way because they have diligently painted a dashed white line in the middle of the road, even though at times you couldn’t even fit a motorcycle in your ‘lane’, let alone a car. I suppose that there had been a time when council money needed spending quickly…
From Murlough Bay we picked our way to Ballycastle for some essential shopping: Dulse. If you look it up, the definition of dulse is something along ‘a dark red edible seaweed with flattened branching fronds’, but in plain terms it’s much like eating a house plant sprinkled with salt. Yet, somehow, in small quantities, it’s actually quite nice.
With our bellies full of seaweed, we continued along the coast. This stretch from Ballycastle to the end of our route is absolutely peppered with things to see, and if you want to make sure you don’t miss anything, a day will not be enough.
Our first stop after Ballycastle was Ballintoy Harbour. It’s just a little skip off the route, and well worth taking. The coastline looks rugged and unforgiving, and on a cold winter’s day you wonder how badly people must have wanted to get out to the sea to build a harbour here. Just the thought of it gave me the chills, and I made sure my heated jacket and gloves were on full blast when we set off again. It would certainly take a very calm and warm day for me to want to sail anywhere near here.
The main attraction around this part of the country is in no doubt. The Giant’s Causeway draws the crowds from near and far. Most will pay £10 to park at the visitor centre and walk or take a shuttle bus to the stone formations. Nothing wrong with that, but just as easily you can park next door at the Causeway Hotel. It costs the same £10 for cars to park there, but our two bikes fitted in one parking place, so we only paid that between us, and the thing is that if you go and have drinks or food at the hotel, you get the parking off your bill. So, you park, have a sandwich, and then wander down to the stones. Nice!
The Giant’s Causeway is made of about 40,000 interlocking stone columns. Whether they were stacked there by an ancient volcanic eruption or quarrelling giants is up for debate, but either way, it is an impressive sight.
After the causeway, the next obvious place to stop is the old Bushmills distillery, just down the road. Possibly the oldest distillery in the world, it has a great shop and pre-booked tours if you are into your whiskey.
Our original plan had been to continue to Portrush and Portstewart before turning back towards Belfast, but we had been dawdling, it was getting late, and there was still somewhere we wanted to see before heading home. So, we abandoned the coast and headed south to Ballymoney and Joey’s Bar, a place that used to be owned by none other than Joey Dunlop. Filled with racing history, the bar is nicely located if you want to explore the NW200 route.
From Ballymoney we opted for the quick route to Belfast, because even when the riding is good, you need to make time for a post-ride sauna, too. And it’s not every day you get to do that in Belfast.
But, sauna or no sauna, the Antrim Coast Road is one of the finest routes to ride at any time of the year. But just because it is so good, riding it in winter means that there are a lot fewer people on the roads and crowding the attractions at the roadside. All you need to do is dig out your heated jacket and gloves, book a crossing, and off you go. And if you do, send us a postcard!
Northern Ireland has some excellent routes on offer, with the Antrim Coast Road a perfect winter ride.
The ride in brief: The route covers roads great and small. This is not a fast ride; the roads can be busy, and they are best enjoyed at a leisurely pace. There are plenty of places to stop along the way for coffees, culture, or a very cold dip in the sea. Give yourself a full day for this ride, which sits a little under 100 miles all in.
