Portballintrae, Port Bhaile an Trá, Co. Antrim

Port Bhaile an Trá · Co. Antrim

A horseshoe bay between Bushmills and the Causeway. Park the car, walk to the wreck site.

Portballintrae is a small village on the north Antrim coast, in a sheltered horseshoe bay between Bushmills and Portrush. About five hundred people live in it. There is a hotel, two places to drink, a slipway, a beach, a few rows of houses on the slope above the water, and a coastguard station from 1874 on the hill. That is more or less the village. It is a quieter address than its neighbours and it knows it.

The history is bigger than the place. In October 1588 the galleass Girona, carrying survivors from three Spanish Armada ships, struck Lacada Point a couple of miles up the coast and went down. Of roughly thirteen hundred souls on board, nine made it ashore. The wreck lay there until a Belgian team led by Robert Sténuit located it in 1967 and brought up gold rings, crosses, salamanders and ducats over the next two seasons. The hoard is now in the Ulster Museum in Belfast - the largest haul ever recovered from a Spanish Armada wreck. The village does not make a fuss of it. There is no Armada museum. The bay where the boats came in to refuel the dive is the same bay you park beside.

What you do here is walk. Section 3 of the Causeway Coast Way starts at the car park above Runkerry Strand, crosses the footbridge over the Bush, runs along the dunes beside the line of the old Bushmills tram, and lands you at the Giant's Causeway in under an hour. That is the walk to do. The other reason to come is to sleep here and not in Bushmills or Portrush - quieter, darker at night, the bay a few steps from the door.

Population

~500 (2021 census)

Coords

55.2167° N, 6.5333° W

01 / 08

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The harbour

A horseshoe bay, a slipway, a few boats.

Set back from the main coast road, in a sheltered bowl. Once a customs landing for Dunluce. Now a string of houses round a small working pier and a beach the village shares with the dog-walkers from Bushmills.

Stories & lore → 02 La Girona

Spanish Armada gold, two miles east.

The galleass Girona went down off Lacada Point on 26 October 1588. Of about 1,300 on board, nine survived. Belgian divers raised the treasure between 1967 and 1968. It is in the Ulster Museum in Belfast now.

The wreck → 03 On the Way

Section 3 of the Causeway Coast Way runs through.

Portballintrae to the Giant's Causeway is 4.3 km of off-road path through the dunes, past Runkerry House, and up onto the cliff. The bus drops you in Bushmills, the path drops you at the stones.

Walks & outings →

02 / 08

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

The Porthole

Bayview Hotel, locals and visitors mixed

Hotel bar & restaurant

The bar at the Bayview is the social middle of the village. Food on, fire on, sea out the window. The locals call it the heart of Portballintrae and they are not wrong - there is not much competition.

03 / 08

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
Bayview Hotel	Hotel	The hotel in the village. On the bay, walk to the harbour, twenty minutes' walk to Bushmills. The Porthole bar is downstairs. Book ahead in summer - it is not a big building.

04 / 08

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

Lacada Point, 26 October 1588

La Girona

The Girona was a galleass - a hybrid of galley and galleon - separated from the Spanish Armada off the west coast of Ireland and limping east along the Ulster shore. She had taken on survivors from two other wrecked Armada ships and was crammed with maybe thirteen hundred men, headed for Scotland. In a storm on the night of 26 October 1588 her rudder failed and she struck the rocks at Lacada Point, a couple of miles east of Portballintrae. Nine men reached the shore. The bodies and the cargo lay on the seabed for nearly four hundred years. In 1967 the Belgian diver Robert Sténuit - sometimes called the world's first aquanaut - located the wreck off Port-na-Spaniagh, the small bay east of the harbour. Over the 1967 and 1968 seasons his team raised gold rings, gem-set crosses, a salamander pendant, ducats, cannon. It is the largest hoard ever recovered from an Armada wreck. The whole collection is in the Ulster Museum in Belfast. It is worth the trip.

1883-1949, the world's first hydroelectric tramway

The Bushmills tram

From 1883 a narrow-gauge electric tram ran between Portrush and Bushmills, and from 1887 onward all the way to the Giant's Causeway. It was the first long electric tramway in the world and the first tram system anywhere powered by hydroelectricity - the engineer William Traill drove it off the River Bush at Walkmills. The line ran along the cliff above Portballintrae, with a stop called Port Hedge where a path led down into the village. The tram closed at the end of the 1949 season. The path it ran on through the dunes is now part of the Causeway Coast Way, and a replica narrow-gauge train runs the Bushmills end of the route in summer. The original cars are in the Ulster Transport Museum.

A landing for Dunluce

The harbour

Portballintrae is older than it looks. In the 1600s it had its own customs house, serving the MacDonnell castle and town at Dunluce. The harbour was the closest landing place on this stretch of coast. When Dunluce was prospering as a market town, Scottish merchants came across from the Mull of Kintyre and settled here. The horseshoe bay is the same shape it was then. The coastguard station up on the hill went up in 1874. Seaport Lodge - known locally as Leslie's Castle - was built in the 1770s by the Leslie family as a sea-bathing lodge. Read the buildings round the bay and most of the village's history is there in the stone.

05 / 08

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Portballintrae to the Giant's Causeway Section 3 of the Causeway Coast Way and the only walk you really need to do here. Off-road the whole way. Down to Runkerry Strand, across the Bush by footbridge, through the dunes beside the tram line, past Runkerry House (1860s), up onto the cliff, down the steps to the stones. Catch the bus back from the Causeway visitor centre.

4.3 km one waydistance

1h 15m one waytime

Runkerry Strand & the Bushfoot dunes The local walk. Down through the dunes from the car park, along the strand, back along the riverbank where the tram used to run. Empty most days. The dunes are protected so stay on the paths.

3 km loopdistance

45 mintime

Heritage Railway Path to Bushmills The old tramway bed inland to Bushmills village. Flat, easy, follows the Bush. Drink at the distillery's end and walk back, or get the road back if it is raining.

3 km one waydistance

40 mintime

06 / 08

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The Causeway is quieter than it will be in three months. The light on the bay is what people come back for. Bring a coat - the Atlantic does not warm up until June.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

The Causeway and Bushmills are at full pelt. Portballintrae is the quieter bed for the same trip - book ahead. Walk the cliff path early morning, before the coaches arrive at the stones.

◐ Mind yourself

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Best time. Crowds gone, storms in, the cliff walk theatrical. October light on Lacada Point - where the Girona went down - is the right kind of moody.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Quiet to the point of empty. The Bayview stays open. Most other things are seasonal. Days short. The cliff path can be slick.

◐ Mind yourself

07 / 08

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Treating Portballintrae as a Causeway base if you want a busy night

It is a village of about five hundred with two bars. If you want music and a choice of food, sleep in Bushmills or Portrush. Portballintrae is for the quiet half of the trip.

Driving to the Giant's Causeway from here

The cliff path from Portballintrae is 4.3 km off-road and lands you at the Causeway. Driving means the visitor-centre car park, the queue, and the price. Walk in. Bus or hitch back.

Looking for the Armada gold in the village

There is no museum, no plaque, no exhibit. The hoard is in the Ulster Museum in Belfast and that is where to see it. The bay here is just the bay the divers worked from.

Expecting a working harbour

A few small boats, a slipway, gulls. The fishing fleet that justified the customs house is long gone. The pier is for looking at, not for buying fish off.

Getting there.

By car

On a side road off the A2 between Bushmills (2 km) and Portrush (6 km). Belfast is 1h 15m up the M2 then the A26. Derry is 50 minutes the other way.

By bus

Translink Goldliner 221 (the Causeway Rambler) and the 172 stop at the village in season. Year-round, the Bushmills buses run from Belfast and Coleraine - get off there and walk or taxi the last 2 km.

By train

Nearest station is Coleraine, on the Belfast-Derry line. Bus or taxi from there (20 min).

By air

Belfast International (BFS) is 1h 15m by road. City of Derry (LDY) is 50 minutes.

Next on the tour

Co. Antrim

Bushmills

Two kilometres inland. The distillery licensed in 1608, the village that grew up round it, and the other end of the old tram.

Co. Antrim

Portrush

Six kilometres west. Two beaches, the Royal Portrush links, and the loud, busy version of this coastline.

Co. Antrim

Belfast

An hour and a quarter up the motorway. The Ulster Museum has the Girona gold. Worth the drive after you have seen the bay.