County Antrim
The coast does the work here: basalt columns at the Giant's Causeway, ruined castles on the cliffs and the Antrim Coast road tying them together. Belfast anchors the south.
Northern Ireland
Six counties in a compact area: the Causeway Coast, Belfast, Derry's walls, the Mournes and the Fermanagh lakelands.
Northern Ireland's six counties hold some of the island's most varied scenery in a compact area. Belfast, the capital, pairs Titanic history and a revived city centre with easy access to the Antrim Coast, where the Giant's Causeway, Carrick-a-Rede and the Glens form one of Europe's great coastal drives.
West and south, the character changes: Derry's complete city walls and the Sperrins, Armagh's orchards and cathedrals, the Mourne Mountains meeting the sea in Down, and Fermanagh's lakelands spreading around Lough Erne. Distances are short, so a single trip can reasonably take in coast, city, mountains and lakes without long driving days.
Highlights
Giant's Causeway, Antrim
UNESCO-listed basalt columns at the heart of the Causeway Coast.
Belfast and Titanic Quarter
The capital city, with the museum on the site where Titanic was built.
Derry City Walls
Complete 17th-century walls encircling the old city on the Foyle.
Mourne Mountains, Down
Granite peaks above the sea at Newcastle, with reservoir valleys and trails.
Lough Erne, Fermanagh
Island-dotted lakelands with monasteries, cruising and great houses.
Counties
County Derry
The walled city on the Foyle is the headline, with the Sperrins behind it and a fine coast at Castlerock and Portstewart. Heaney's home ground around Bellaghy draws its own pilgrims.
County Tyrone
The Sperrins give the walking and the dark skies; the story is emigration, told at the Ulster American Folk Park near Omagh. A county of market towns, linen history and people who left.
County Fermanagh
Water is the county: Upper and Lower Lough Erne, more than a hundred islands and an island county town at Enniskillen. Hire a boat and the place makes sense.
County Armagh
Ireland's ecclesiastical capital keeps two cathedrals for Saint Patrick and orchards around Loughgall that fill with blossom in spring. Drumlin country rolls away in every direction.
County Down
The Mournes sweep down to the sea at Newcastle, as the song says, and the coast curves away past Strangford Lough to the Ards Peninsula. Saint Patrick's country anchors the middle of it.
What we would choose ourselves
The Giant's Causeway, County Antrim
Northern Ireland tours
Dunluce Castle, Giant's Causeway, Dark Hedges and Belfast (Finn McCools Tours)
The north in a day, without hiring a car or working out the border crossing, because there is not one to work out. The coach leaves Parnell Square at a quarter to seven and heads up the coast: a photo stop at Dunluce Castle, an hour and a half on the stones of the Giant's Causeway, twenty minutes under the Dark Hedges, and an hour in Belfast to finish. It carries Viator's Badge of Excellence, a 4.9 rating from nearly 5,900 reviews, from US$91.65 a head, and free cancellation to the day before.
Best for: A first run at the Causeway coast without driving. It starts at a quarter to seven in the morning and runs twelve and a half hours, and the operator does not recommend it for small children.
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