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COLERAINE

CO. DERRY · IE

Coleraine
Cúil Rathain

The Causeway Coast
STOP 03 / 07

Cúil Rathain · Co. Derry

A market town with a university bolted on, and the oldest address in Ireland on its southern edge.

Coleraine isn't pretty in the way the coast-road villages are pretty. It's a working market town that drew a Plantation charter in 1613, a railway in 1855, a paper mill, a salmon trade, and in 1968 a university that bolted three hundred acres of campus onto the east bank of the Bann. The result is a town that's bigger than it looks on the map and quieter than it should be on a Tuesday in July, because the students have all gone home.

The river is the point. The Bann is ninety metres wide here, tidal, and at The Cutts a mile upstream it does the thing rivers do when geology gets in the way — it leaps. The Honourable The Irish Society have held the fishing rights since the original 1613 charter and they still sell day licences from an office in town. They have outlasted three empires. They will outlast you.

Mountsandel, on a wooded bluff above the river ten minutes south of the Diamond, is where Ireland's human story actually begins. Carbon-dated to between 7,900 and 7,600 BC. Older than Newgrange by four thousand years. Older than the pyramids by five. There is no visitor centre. You walk up through the trees and stand on the spot.

Don't come for nightlife. Come for a half-day with the river, an hour with the prehistory, and a meal at the Brown Trout out the road. Then drive ten minutes to Castlerock or Portstewart for the sea. The town is a base, not a destination — and once you accept that, it works very well.

Population

24,483

Walk score

Diamond to the Bann in five minutes; the campus is a mile upriver

Founded

Royal Charter 1613; Mesolithic settlement at Mountsandel c. 7,900–7,600 BC

Coords

55.1326° N, 6.6685° W

01 / 09

At a glance.

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

01 Mountsandel

Ireland's oldest known address.

On a wooded bluff above the Bann, ten minutes' walk south of the Diamond, Mesolithic hunters built circular huts and ate salmon and hazelnuts here from around 7,700 BC. Carbon-dated. No turnstile. A few interpretive panels and a lot of trees.

Stories & lore → 02 The Bann

A river wide enough to be a feature.

Ireland's longest river runs through the middle of the town, ninety metres across, tidal at the bridge. The Cutts a mile upstream is where the salmon leap. The Honourable The Irish Society has held the fishing rights since 1613 and still does.

Walks & outings → 03 The university

Ulster University, since 1968.

Founded as the New University of Ulster in 1968. Three hundred acres on the river's east bank. The Riverside Theatre on campus runs proper programming year-round. Term-time the town has students; summer the town is back to itself.

Stories & lore →

02 / 09

The pubs.

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

The Anchor Bar

Local, unpretentious

Town pub

On Railway Road. The closest the town centre comes to a properly traditional pub — older crowd at the bar, students later, sport on the screen. Don't expect a session most nights.

Fitzpatrick's (Brown Trout Inn)

Out-of-town, fireside

Country pub & restaurant

Seven miles south at Aghadowey. The bar at the Brown Trout is a fire and a wood-clad room and the menu in your hand. If you want one civilised pint after dinner before the drive, this is it.

Students' Union

Loud and young, in season

Campus bar, term-time only

On the Ulster University campus a mile upriver. Fine if you're a student. Strange to walk into if you're not, and dead in summer.

03 / 09

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
Brown Trout Golf & Country Inn	Country-inn restaurant	€€€	Seven miles out the A29 at Aghadowey. The O'Hara family have run it for generations — Northern Ireland's first golf hotel, with a 9-hole course out the back and a kitchen that takes locally-sourced seriously. The Sunday carvery and the breakfast are the two reputations. Worth the drive.
The Lodge Hotel restaurants	Hotel dining	€€	On Bushmills Road on the edge of town. Two rooms — Romanoff's does a carvery buffet, Elliot's Bistro is the à-la-carte side. Not exciting on paper. Quietly reliable in practice.
Ground Espresso Bars	Coffee & lunch	€	On Kingsgate Street. A north-coast independent chain that started here in 2001. Proper coffee, decent traybakes, the kind of place you end up in twice in two days without quite meaning to.
Truva Riverside	Mediterranean / Turkish	€€	In the Riverside Theatre building on the Ulster University campus. Pre-show dining is the angle — book a table for an hour before curtain and you have somewhere to be afterwards.

04 / 09

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
Brown Trout Golf & Country Inn	Country inn	Family-run for four generations at Aghadowey, seven miles south. Rooms over the golf course, full Ulster fry, fishing and golf out the door. The honest answer to 'where do you stay near Coleraine'.
The Lodge Hotel	Town-edge hotel	Fifty-six rooms on Bushmills Road, walking distance from the Diamond. Three-star, two restaurants, a salon attached for some reason. The functional choice if you want to be in town.
Ulster University residences	Self-catering, summer only	Out of term, the campus rents student rooms by the night. Cheap, plain, riverside, ten minutes' drive to Portstewart. Best for groups and budget travellers; not romantic.
A cottage out toward Castlerock	Self-catering	Drive five miles north toward the coast and the prices halve and the views start. Trust us — Coleraine itself is the base, not the bedroom.

05 / 09

Stories & lore.

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

9,700 years and counting

Mountsandel

In the 1970s the archaeologist Peter Woodman excavated a wooded bluff a mile south of the Diamond and found post-holes from circular huts, microlith flint tools, salmon and eel bones, and hazelnut shells in fire pits. Carbon dated between 7,900 and 7,600 BC — the oldest known human settlement in Ireland. The hunters who lived here picked the spot for the same reason everyone else has since: a wide tidal river, a salmon run, woodland for shelter. You walk up through the trees today and there is nothing built. That is correct. They didn't build anything that lasted, and the absence is the point.

Older than most of the world

The Honourable The Irish Society

Founded by Royal Charter in 1613 as a consortium of London livery companies tasked with planting Coleraine and the new county of Londonderry. They built the original walls, ran the salmon traps at the Cutts, and shipped fish back to London markets. Four centuries later they are still in business, still hold the fishing rights on the Lower Bann, and still operate from an office in Coleraine. Day licences for the river are sold from there. The Society has outlasted the empire that created it.

A 1690s thatched cottage that stayed put

Hezlett House

Five miles up the Castlerock road sits a low whitewashed cottage with a cruck-frame timber skeleton dating to around 1690 — one of the oldest vernacular houses in Northern Ireland. Probably built as a parsonage, sold to a Presbyterian farmer named Isaac Hezlett in 1761, lived in by Hezletts until the National Trust took it on in 1976. The roof is thatch on cruck trusses you don't expect to see this far north. Open seasonally; check the National Trust calendar. Quiet, low-ceilinged, the real thing.

Public roads, 200 mph

The Triangle

Once a year in early May the public roads between Coleraine, Portstewart and Portrush close, and the North West 200 motorcycle road race takes over the 8.97-mile triangle circuit. First run in 1929. The biggest annual sporting event in Northern Ireland — 150,000 spectators down hedgerows, riders within inches of dry-stone walls, lap times under five minutes. The rest of the year you can drive the same roads at sensible speeds and try to picture it. You can't really.

06 / 09

Things to do outside.

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

Mountsandel Forest & Fort From the riverside car park up through beech and oak to the bluff. Interpretive panels at the top explain what was found and where. The Iron Age fort sits on the same site as the Mesolithic camp. Quiet on a weekday morning.

2 km loopdistance

45 mintime

River Bann towpath From the town bridge upriver toward the campus and the marina. Flat, paved, popular with rowers and dog-walkers. The campus arboretum is open to walk through if the gates are.

4 km returndistance

1 hourtime

The Cutts A mile upstream where the river drops over a rocky ridge. The historic salmon traps are disused since 1995 but the leap is still there in season. Park at the Society's office side, walk down to the bank.

Drive + short walkdistance

30 mintime

Castlerock & Mussenden Temple Six miles north. The cliff-top temple at Downhill Demesne, the strand at Castlerock, Hezlett House on the way back. The reason most people stay in Coleraine in the first place.

Drive 10 min + 3 km loopdistance

Half daytime

07 / 09

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar–May

The North West 200 takes over the triangle in early May; Mountsandel woods are in leaf; sea swims at Castlerock are bracing rather than impossible. Book ahead in race week.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun–Aug

Long evenings, Bann at its tidal best, the Riverside Theatre on a quieter schedule but the coast on the doorstep. Students gone — the town is calmer than in term.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep–Oct

Salmon runs hit their stride at the Cutts, university back in session, theatre programme picks up. Light is excellent on the river bluffs.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov–Feb

The town keeps going but the coast empties. Christmas market in the Diamond is honest small-town, not Instagram. Days are short; plan around them.

◐ Mind yourself

08 / 09

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

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

Coming for the trad-pub night out

Coleraine isn't that town. The music side of the north coast lives in Portrush and Portstewart and the back-road country pubs. If trad is the trip, base yourself in Portstewart and visit Coleraine for the daylight things.

Coleraine Cheddar as a 'made here' souvenir

The factory has made only processed cheese slices for decades — the actual Coleraine Cheddar is now produced in Portadown. The name is the only Coleraine thing about it. Buy it if you like it; don't buy it for the address.

The Cliffs-of-Moher-style Mountsandel experience

There is no visitor centre, no café, no audio guide. A few panels and a lot of trees. If you arrive expecting a heritage attraction you'll be disappointed; if you arrive expecting a quiet wood with the oldest address in Ireland in it, you'll be fine.

Driving into town on race week without checking road closures

Early May, the triangle shuts in stages for the North West 200. The A2 between Coleraine and Portrush is part of it. The schedule is published months ahead — read it before you book.

Getting there.

By car

Belfast to Coleraine is 1h on the M2/A26. Derry is 40 min on the A37. From the Causeway Coastal Route, it is the obvious inland base — Portrush is 6 miles, Portstewart 5, the Giant's Causeway 12.

By bus

Translink Goldline 218 from Belfast Europa, several daily, 1h 45m. Local buses connect to Portrush, Portstewart and the campus.

By train

Coleraine is on the Belfast–Derry line, hourly daytime, 1h 20m from Belfast Lanyon Place, 40 min from Derry. The Portrush branch line leaves from the same station — 12 minutes to the seafront.

By air

Belfast International (BFS) is 50 min by car. City of Derry (LDY) is 35 min. Dublin is 3 hours.