County Antrim - 12 Attractions You Must Visit

A majestic castle in Antrim, on the banks of the Sixmilewater River. It was erected in stages between 1613 and 1662. It was destroyed by fire in 1922 and finally demolished in the 1970s. All that remain are a slightly raised grassed platform as well as a freestanding Italian stair tower which was built in 1887 and a gatehouse, which was built around 1818 with twin neo-Tudor towers, with older connecting walls. The gardens are a popular tourist attraction on the Randalstown Road, Antrim.

A beautiful park situated on the shore of Lough Neagh and is a popular destination for visitors with its unique history, natural beauty, 5 star caravan park and nautical themed play park. The attractive surroundings make it the ideal spot to spend a few hours enjoying a picnic, feeding the swans or walking along the many pathways. The Six Mile Water River Path leads to Antrim Castle Gardens & Clotworthy House, one of the most unique

Antrim Round Tower was built around the 10th century and is one of the finest towers of its kind in Ireland. It is 28 metres tall and was built as part of a Monastic settlement. It is impressive reminders of Antrim’s ancient monastic settlement. The monastic site was burned in 1147.

Antrim Castle Gardens are an absolute historical gem.Developed around Antrim Castle, built by Sir Hugh Clotworthy and his son, Sir John Clotworthy, between 1610 and 1662, they are a complex living museum containing over four centuries of culture and heritage that tell the stories of the people who created, lived and worked here. You will find nothing like these 400 year old gardens anywhere else in Northern Ireland.

This is a 17th-century castle improved in 1783 and 1837. Features include mature shelter trees, an artificial lake, gate lodges and a castellated entrance gate. The small late-19th-century formal gardens are now grassed. There is public access to the mausoleum only. The castle was remodelled in the 1780s to designs by Robert Adam, who also designed the stable block now known as 'Adam Yard'.

This fine stable block and coach house with its imposing Jacobean revival style facade of coursed rubble basalt and Tardree granite dressings, was built c1843 by the 10th Viscount Massereene as part of his creation of Her Ladyship’s Pleasure Gardens which necessitated the removal of the original coachyard at the rear of the Castle. It is believed to have been designed by Charles Lanyon.

Situated in the graveyard of Castle Upton, this family mausoleum in the shape of a triumphal arch was designed and built by the renowned Scottish neoclassical architect Robert Adam. This particular tomb was built in 1789. It is typical of Adam’s style with its classical urns, leaf swags and circular reliefs surrounding the arched door to the vault. It remains one of the finest examples of neoclassical architecture in Ireland.

Pogue's Entry contains the childhood home of Alexander Irvine, who became a missionary in New York's Bowery and eventually pastor of the Church of the Ascension on Fifth Avenue. His book 'My Lady of The Chimney Corner' recalls his boyhood years in Pogue’s Entry and describes the lives of Irish country folk during the postfamine days.

A beautiful and wild mixed conifer forest that contains an owl conservation centre, Deer Park, and several walking routes, with two small adjacent Nature Reserves at the forest edge on the shores of Lough Neagh. Its earlier use was as the estate deer park, enclosing a herd of fallow deer roaming through open parkland and large broadleaved trees.

Rea's Wood Forest Nature Reserve is a wet woodland dominated by alder, willow and birch trees. It stretches for a mile along the shores of Lough Neagh. A shared pedestrian and cycle path will help you explore. Toilets and refreshments are available nearby. The woodland floor provides ideal habitat not only for many plants but also for many rare invertebrates including Snails, Slugs, Hoverflies and Beetles.

Shane's Castle is the family seat of the O'Neills of Clanaboy. The Demesne is one of the most beautiful and well maintained in Ireland. The castle is on the north-east shores of Lough Neagh. Built in 1345 by a member of the Clandeboy O'Neill dynasty, it was originally called Eden-duff-carrick. Shane MacBrien O'Neill changed the name to Shane's Castle in 1722.

The Six Mile Water is a river in southern County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is an indirect tributary of the River Bann, via Lough Neagh. It rises in the hills west of Larne and north of Carrickfergus and descends gently westward, flowing through or close to the communities of Ballynure, Ballyclare, Doagh, Parkgate, Templepatrick, Dunadry and Antrim into Lough Neagh. A weir exists at Ballyclare where water was diverted to the paper mill.