Britain’s most scenic drives: The Causeway Coastal Route, Northern Ireland

On a quest to find the country's most glorious roads, Annunciata Elwes explores Northern Ireland's Causeway Coastal Route.

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The aerial view of the two islands in Carrick-a-Rede with the rope bridge connecting the two islands in Ireland
(Image credit: Alamy Stock Photo)

It is possible to power through all nine mythical glens of Antrim in one day, whizzing along the 195 miles between Belfast and Derry.

But why would you rush when there's scenery like this to enjoy on one of Britain's most scenic drives?

Dunluce castle in Northern Ireland aerial

You’d miss so much — from the volcano frozen in time that is Giant’s Causeway, with its 40,000 basalt columns, the moody castles of Dunseverick (on a wave-bashed peninsula visited by St Patrick), Dunluce, Glenarm and Carrickfergus, through the brooding Dark Hedges that served as Westeros’s Kingsroad in Game of Thrones.

The rope bridge of your dreams? Carrick a Rede, County Antrim

The rope bridge of your dreams? Or your nightmares? Carrick a Rede, County Antrim
(Image credit: Getty Images/National Geographic)

Then there are the cliff caves and suspension bridges at the Edwardian Gobbins, overlooking an Irish Sea where dolphins dance, Torr Head for views of Scotland and 18th-century Mussenden Temple on a 120ft clifftop above the Atlantic.

Dundrum Bay County Down Northern Ireland

Take a weekend or, better yet, a week.

Murlough Bay ,Benmore ,Fair Head Co. Antrim Northern Ireland Aerial

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Annunciata Elwes
Annunciata Elwes

Annunciata is director of contemporary art gallery TIN MAN ART and an award-winning journalist specialising in art, culture and property. Previously, she was Country Life’s News & Property Editor. Before that, she worked at The Sunday Times Travel Magazine, researched for a historical biographer and co-founded a literary, art and music festival in Oxfordshire. Lancashire-born, she lives in Hampshire with a husband, two daughters and a mischievous pug.