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Known as Northern Ireland’s tallest cliff face, the impressive and iconic Fairhead rises 600 feet above sea level.
Enjoy breath-taking views from the cliff edge of Fairhead. Views over Murlough Bay and towards Rathlin.
Highly regarded as an outstanding rock-climbing location, it’s believed to be the biggest expanse of climbable rock in Britain or Ireland.
The waking route
Walkers can enjoy the breathtakingly beautiful views from the top to Ballycastle, Murlough Bay, Rathlin Island and the Scottish isles. The challenging route – which requires good walking boots, a map and caution near the cliff edge – gives walkers a sense of how fire, ice and volcanic activity shaped the unique formation of the headland some 60 million years ago.
There is car-parking available on your approach to the headland. The trailhead panel in the car park will offer you a number of route choices with loops from 1.5 to 3.4 miles. Whichever walk you choose to do, take time to read the hidden interpretation information at some of the waymarkers pointing out important sites of historic and geological interest along the way.
History
There are early housing settlement villages, known as clachans, to be discovered. The area was once an important industrial site for coal mining and the kelp industry. It’s also steeped in mystic mythology; legend has it the Children of Lir were put under an evil spell, transforming them into swans to spend 900 years in exile from humanity in the Sea of Moyle. From the Dalriadian Kingdom period, there once stood in all its mighty, Dunmore Fort.
Wildlife
Wild goats roam the rocks beneath the clifftops, as you wind along the rugged coastline. From the road, a manmade Iron Age island or crannóg can be seen in the middle of a lake, Lough na Cranagh. The lakes are stocked with trout and can be fished during the summer months.
