Here are the available cottages for rental in Northern Ireland.

Review by Bernard from Purley

Having spent the week before in north coast of Wales, we were very impressed with (and much prefered) the north east coast of Northern Ireland. Besides being better value for money, it was also more relaxed, friendly and unspoilt. It was a pleasure to be in such peaceful and undeveloped countryside with many walks, forests and beaches to explore. We will definetly be coming back.

Review by Quentin from middleham

NEED A REALLY GOOD MAP TO GET AROUND . HAVE NEVER DRIVEN OVER SO MANY BADLY REPAIRED ROADS



THE SCENCERY IS FABULOUS THE PEOPLE FRIENDLY THE WHOLE PLACE WAS GREAT WILL GO BACK.

Review by Review by visitor

Carnlough , situated along the Antrim Coast road, recently voted one of the best views in the world.

I just love that drive discovering a little village around every turn from Drain’s Bay, Ballygally, Glenarm and then to Carnlough.

On a good clear day you can see right over to the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland.



We stopped at Carnlough and although the weather wasn’t great we had a good walk around the harbour, now owned by Larne council it has been refurbished in recent years.

They have also regenerated the Harbour House following investment from the International Fund for Ireland. It now houses a community resource centre with access for the general public to fax, photocopying and computer facilities at a nominal fee. One retail unit houses a shop for fishing tackle with a boat hire and a boat rod facility, while the upstairs unit is in the process of being let.The original Harbour House was built by Mark Francis Wilson of Drumalla around 1850 as administration offices.

We also made our way to the Cranny Falls. A substantial scheme carried out by the Department of Watercourse Management under instruction from Larne Borough Council has transformed the old railway line used in the heyday of the local limestone industry into a most attractive part of the Ulster Way.

The walkway, which has just been completed by means of a wooden bridge linking into the quarry area, leads to one of Carnlough’s scenic jewels – The Cranny Falls-a beauty spot not to be missed by nature enthusiasts.





Hungry so we decided to pop into the Londonderry Arms, welcoming and warm with a pleasing reception area leading to a room with a grand fireplace. Lots of paintings and antiques caught our eyes.

It was High Tea menu…which was good value for money.

Starters were £3.5-5…..like Soup of the day at £3.95 including great wheaten bread.

We had heard about the Ballymoney Ham Salad £10.95 so we opted for one of those and the Fillet of salmon on a bed of leeks £12.65. Good sized portions with fresh produce locally grown.

We were not going home hungry.

Desserts looked good but we resisted. £3.85 ranging from Fried ice cream to apple pie.

The service was excellent and friendly….there is good disabled access and parking.

All in all a positive experience.

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Hooked on Ulster

From the Mail on Sunday

Was the fish Chris Tarrant caught in the teeming waters of the Sperrins a perch, a salmon, a pike or a sprat? I could have phoned a friend better versed in the piscatorial arts than I am, but on the banks of a riffling river at the bottom of a remote valley deep in the heart of Northern Ireland, you don't get much of a signal on your mobile.
Ask the audience? What did a few inquisitive cows leaning over a gate know about fish?
I was in a tucked-away car park alongside what is reputed to be one of the best fishing rivers in Europe, the Bann, reading a promotional sign featuring our illustrious quizmaster, who is a regular visitor here. Forgive the Sperrins marketing people for extracting full benefit from that picture of him with the fish. Northern Ireland tourism needs, and deserves, all the friends it can find.
Not that there's any shortage of famous people from this green and mountainous region. Half the cottages seem to have been the former home to the grandfather of some American president or other. Two locals became senior American generals, ending up fighting on opposite sides in the Civil War. A man from Strabane printed the Declaration of Independence.
I spotted some poems on the wall of a pub. 'Who wrote those?' I asked. 'Ah, they're by Seamus. Ah, you know him, sure you do.' I confessed I did not. 'Ah, sure you know Seamus. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature, Seamus Heaney. He lived around here.'
An enormous sign adorned one remote road junction. The community was drawing another of its travelling scions back to its bosom. 'Welcome Home, Tyrone Tom. Everybody's big brother.' I think there was a reference to another TV programme there. Now, holding tight to all its lucky charms and praying there aren't any more setbacks in the peace process, Northern Ireland is extending its welcome to the rest of us, inviting us into some of the least-known places in the UK.
'You must see the Giant's Causeway and where the Titanic was built in Belfast,' said a friend when I said where I was going. But there's more to it all than that.
Eugene Kielt, my host at Laurel Villa guesthouse in the quiet town of Magherafelt, a 40-minute drive from Belfast International Airport, is one of the pioneer guides to this hitherto unsung centre of Northern Ireland. His promotional leaflet promises several rewarding days of touring to places I never knew existed.
Water is big in the Sperrins, which begins just east of here at Lough Neagh, the biggest lake in the UK. Then there are all those rivers. The region's highest peak, Sawel Summit (678 metres and 600 million years old), stretches west all the way to the border with Eire.
There is no point in pretending that the troubles of the past 30 years passed this tranquil region by. Magherafelt, Draperstown and Cookstown, with their luxuriously wide streets, were built for the first Scottish and English settlers in the 1600s and 1700s. But you sense the desire to move on. There are new visitor centres and restaurants, like the excellent and artfully designed Gardiners in Magherafelt, that wouldn't look out of place in Chelsea. ... more

Who needs to be a millionaire?

From the Mail on Sunday

Although I've been fishing in Ireland for about 30 years, I hadn't been to Ulster for ages. Then I was invited to explore the potential of the area north of Belfast. I quickly discovered that the fishing is excellent, the scenery superb and the Irish as friendly and eager to please as everywhere else on this beautiful island.
We fished all day and drank Guinness and listened to outrageous stories all night. That was seven years ago and I've been back every year since.
I have never had any problems at all over there. Place names like Strabane, Crossmaglen, Omagh and Newry might have been infamous in the Troubles, but they are also the centres for some of the best pike and salmon fishing in Europe.
Just a mile from Strabane, where the police station is surrounded with barbed wire and anti-rocket defences, we fished for salmon in the magical River Mourne on a beautiful spring morning with the woodlands all around us filled with birdsong.
The countryside is stunning, that lush green colour you find everywhere in Ireland, with well-kept pine forests leading right down to the water's edge and blue, misty mountains on the skyline.
One advantage for the visiting salmon fisherman is that, unlike in Scotland, in Ireland you can fish for salmon on Sundays. This makes a big difference to the angler who can only get away for a weekend.
For the coarse fisherman, rivers are awash with roach, bream and pike. It's a particularly good place to visit in spring when there's no river fishing in England because of the close season.
All around the Strabane area there are plenty of salmon in the Mourne and its beautiful little tributary, the Finn, and close to Enniskillen we fished Lower Lough Erne and caught dozens of pike including a 29 1/2-pounder - one of the longest fish I've ever seen. ... more