POSTED FROM

PORTSTEWART

CO. DERRY · IE

Portstewart
Port Stíobhaird

The Causeway Coast
STOP 02 / 06

Port Stíobhaird · Co. Derry

A two-mile beach you can drive on, an Italian ice-cream shop since 1911, and a convent on the cliff.

Portstewart is the quieter half of a seaside double act. Portrush, six minutes up the coast in Antrim, took the railway, the funfair, and the noise. Portstewart took the convent, the promenade, and the long beach. The split happened on purpose — John Cromie, who owned the place in the 1850s, wouldn't let the railway in for fear of what it would do to Sunday. The trains stopped a mile out at Cromore Halt, and the town stayed the kind of town it wanted to be.

The shape of it is simple. A small harbour at the south. A curved Promenade running north from there for half a mile, with Morelli's ice-cream shop halfway along and the Crescent — a sheltered park with a paddling pool and a fountain — set back behind it. The Dominican College, a Gothic pile built as a private castle in 1834 and bought by the Dominican Sisters in 1917, sits on the headland at the north end and is the silhouette every postcard uses. Beyond the cliff, the Strand. Two miles of golden sand owned by the National Trust, with cars driving on it like it's normal, because here it is.

It's a Coleraine satellite as much as a resort. Ulster University's Coleraine campus is six kilometres away, and a third of the housing here is student lets. In term that means lights on in winter; out of term, in summer, the place fills with golfers, surfers, motorbikes, and ice-cream queues. Royal Portrush is in Antrim. Portstewart Golf Club, founded 1894, has its own three courses on the dunes south of the Strand and has hosted the Irish Open. None of this is a secret.

Come for a long weekend with the wind in your face. Walk the cliff path to Portrush in the morning, drive onto the Strand for lunch at Harry's Shack, do the Promenade and a Morelli's cone in the evening. Two days does it. Three if the weather behaves and you take the boat out.

Population

7,854 (NISRA 2021)

Walk score

Promenade end-to-end in 15 minutes

Founded

Planned settlement c. 1792

Coords

55.1833° N, 6.7167° 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 The Strand

Two miles of sand. You can drive on it.

National Trust own and run it. Pay at the barrier, drive onto the beach, park on sand. The dunes behind are an Area of Special Scientific Interest — six thousand years old and full of wild pansies.

Walks & outings → 02 The Promenade

Curved, sheltered, walked at all hours.

It hooks around a small headland between the harbour and the Crescent. Morelli's at the south end, the Dominican College on the cliff at the north, weather doing its thing in between.

Stories & lore → 03 The Triangle

Race week, every May.

The North West 200 runs a 14.3-kilometre street circuit between Portstewart, Coleraine and Portrush. First Saturday closest to mid-May, 150,000 people, the Promenade becomes a paddock. Either come for it or come some other week.

When to go →

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 Complex

All-in-one, busy

Pub, bistro, nightclub — established 1898

Top of the main street. Reclaimed Victorian mahogany at the bar, a bistro upstairs, Aura nightclub above that. Pub-food awards on the wall. The default for an evening that isn't decided yet.

Shenanigans

Promenade, loud

Bar & venue

78 The Promenade, five bars across three floors, live music most weekends. Student-leaning when term is on, family-leaning when it isn't. A March 2026 listing has it as closed — ring before you walk down.

The Harbour Bar

Maritime, view

Waterfront pub

Down at the harbour, walls hung with old fishing photos and lifeboat memorabilia. Outdoor tables in summer. The pint of choice after a Strand walk.

Portstewart Golf Club bar

Golfers, civilised

Clubhouse

Open to non-members. The view across the Strand Course to the Atlantic is the reason. Bring a collared shirt and a quiet voice.

03 / 09

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
Harry's Shack	Seafood, on the beach	€€€	On Portstewart Strand itself, on National Trust land, open since 2014. Wood-fired, blackboard menu, whatever was landed that morning. Jay Rayner reviewed it for The Guardian in 2015 and the queue hasn't shortened since. Book.
Morelli's of Portstewart	Ice cream parlour	€	The Promenade institution. The Morelli family started in Coleraine in 1911; Angelo Morelli opened the Portstewart Promenade shop — the original "Ice Palace" — in 1927. Five generations later, a knickerbocker glory at a window seat is still the right answer.
The Anchor Bistro	Bar food	€€	Upstairs at the Anchor. £250k refit a few years back. Steaks, fish, a pub-Sunday-roast. Reliable rather than exciting, which on the wrong sort of evening is exactly what you want.
Babushka Kitchen Café	Café & beach kiosk	€	Small kitchen at the harbour end. Brunch, flat whites, a sausage bap that does the job after a cold-water swim at the Herring Pond.
The Cromore Halt	Guest-inn restaurant	€€	A mile inland — named for the Victorian railway station that was forced out here when Cromie wouldn't let the trains into town. Eighteen rooms, a bistro, a wine list. Quiet alternative to the seafront.

04 / 09

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
Cromore Halt Guest Inn	Guest inn	Family-run, 18 ensuite rooms plus a Jacuzzi suite, a mile out of town on the road to Coleraine. Cheaper than the seafront, and you sleep through the boy-racers.
Beech Hill Country House	Country house	Up the hill on the Coleraine road. A handful of rooms in a Georgian-ish country house with grounds. The breakfast is the booking reason.
The Anchor Complex rooms	Pub-with-rooms	Above the main bar. Modern, walking distance to everything, reasonably soundproofed for what's underneath. Don't book a front room for race week unless you like motorbikes.
A self-catering apartment on the Promenade	Self-catering	The Morelli's redevelopment in 2002 added apartments above the shop, and there are dozens more along the seafront. In low season you can get a sea-view apartment for the price of a town-centre B&B in summer.

05 / 09

Stories & lore.

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

A hundred and fifteen years of ice cream

Morelli's

Peter Morelli left Frosinone in Italy and opened a fish-and-chip café in Coleraine in 1911, making ice cream in the back from his father Barbato's recipe. He met Annie Dymond, married her, expanded along the coast. His nephew Angelo took over the Portstewart Promenade shop — the "Ice Palace" — in 1927, and the family have been there since. The original building came down in 2002 and the current café-and-apartments block went up in its place. The recipe didn't change. Five generations now. Order a knickerbocker glory and don't apologise.

O'Hara's Castle to Dominican College

The school on the cliff

Henry O'Hara built Rock Castle in 1834 — Gothic Revival, battlements, the works — on the headland at the north end of the Promenade. It was extended in 1844, sold to the Crombie family, then to the Dominican Sisters in 1917, who turned it into a girls' boarding school with sixteen boarders and five day pupils. It went co-ed in 1968. Six hundred and sixty-odd pupils now. The silhouette on every postcard of Portstewart is technically a school.

Race week on the Triangle

The North West 200

First run in 1929. A 14.3-kilometre public-road street circuit between Portstewart, Coleraine and Portrush — "the Triangle" — closed for practice and racing across one week each May. Northern Ireland's biggest annual sporting event, 150,000 spectators, around nine races over the weekend. Station Corner on the Coleraine end is where most of the lap times are made and most of the bad news happens. If you don't want a motorcycle race outside your bedroom window, come a different week.

John Cromie and Sunday

The railway that wasn't

When the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway came up the coast in the 1850s, John Cromie — landlord, evangelical, sober — wouldn't have it within the town. Sunday trains corrupting Sunday worship, said the argument. The line stopped at Cromore Halt, a mile inland, and a narrow-gauge electric tramway ran passengers down the hill from 1882 to 1926. It is why Portstewart looks like Portstewart and not like Portrush. One man, one decision, one century.

Jimmy Kennedy's evening

Red Sails in the Sunset

Jimmy Kennedy was born in Omagh in 1902 but his family moved to Portstewart and the Promenade is where, in 1935, he watched a yacht going west into the sun and wrote what became one of the biggest popular songs of the century — recorded later by Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Fats Domino, The Platters. There's a ten-foot fishing-boat sculpture on the Promenade now with the lyrics on a plaque. He wrote about two thousand songs in all. "The Teddy Bears' Picnic" is also him. The man earned his statue.

A National Trust beach with a barrier

Drive onto the beach

Portstewart Strand is owned and run by the National Trust. Two miles of Blue Flag sand, a six-thousand-year-old dune system behind it designated as an ASSI, and — uniquely for an NT property — you pay at a barrier, drive onto the sand, and park your car on the beach. Members free, the rest pay seasonally. The dunes are the protected bit; the beach is the practical one. Both work.

06 / 09

Things to do outside.

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

The Port Path (Portstewart to Portrush cliff walk) Out the north end of the Promenade, past the Dominican College, along the cliffs above Ballyreagh, into Portrush at the East Strand. Part of the Causeway Coast Way and the Ulster Way. Steps, grass, a bit of road. Bus or taxi back, or turn around and walk it both ways.

~10 km one waydistance

2.5–3 hourstime

Portstewart Strand and the Bann estuary Walk the full two miles of the Strand to the Barmouth — where the River Bann meets the sea — and back. Bird hides at the far end. Time it for low tide and don't underestimate the wind on a winter day.

6 km returndistance

2 hourstime

The Promenade and the Crescent loop Harbour to the Dominican College and back, with a detour through the Crescent park. The way to take the temperature of the town in any weather. End at Morelli's.

2 kmdistance

30–45 mintime

Herring Pond rock-pool swim Stone steps off the cliff path on the Promenade side drop you into a deep natural rock pool the locals have swum in for a hundred years. Tide-dependent, sometimes closed for safety. Cold all year. A small wetsuit and a towel and you're sorted.

Out and backdistance

20 min plus a swimtime

07 / 09

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar–May

May is North West 200 week. 150,000 motorbike fans, every road in the Triangle closed for practice and racing, every bed booked a year out. If you're not there for the bikes, come in March or April. Long bright evenings, cold sea, half the price.

◐ Mind yourself

Summer

Jun–Aug

Peak. The Strand fills with cars, the Promenade fills with cones, Harry's Shack books out three weeks ahead. Worth it for the long evenings, but pick weekdays and go early.

◐ Mind yourself

Autumn

Sep–Oct

The students come back, the tourists thin out, the surf gets serious. Storms roll in from the Atlantic and the Promenade earns its sheltered curve. Best time to be here.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov–Feb

Quiet. Half the seasonal cafés shut, the proper pubs stay open, the Strand on a clear cold day is one of the great walks in Ireland. Bring layers. Morelli's stays open.

◉ Go

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.

Driving the Strand at peak summer weekend

It's a beach with cars on it. On an August Saturday the queue at the barrier can be 40 minutes long and the parked rows reach the dune. Walk in from the car park instead, or come at 9am, or come on a Tuesday.

The Cliffs of Moher comparison

People treat Portstewart as a stop on the way to the Giant's Causeway. The Causeway is fine and worth a morning. But the actual cliff walk is the Port Path from this Promenade to Portrush — free, open all hours, and most days you'll have a kilometre of it to yourself.

Race week if you don't care about racing

The North West 200 closes the roads, fills the beds, and turns the whole town into a paddock for a week each May. If motorbikes aren't your thing, the calendar is the easy fix. Come the week before or after and the place is itself again.

Booking the York Hotel

Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council approved the conversion of the York to apartments — if a guidebook still lists it as a hotel, the guidebook is out of date. Cromore Halt or Beech Hill are the substitutes.

Getting there.

By car

Belfast to Portstewart is 1h 10m via the M2 / A26 / A29. Derry is 50 minutes west on the A2 coast road. Coleraine is 10 minutes inland.

By bus

Translink Ulsterbus 140 runs the Triangle: Coleraine — Portrush — Portstewart, regularly through the day. The Goldliner 218 from Belfast Europa connects via Coleraine. The 234 to Derry runs through Coleraine too.

By train

No station in Portstewart — Cromie made sure of that. Coleraine is the railhead, 10 minutes by bus or taxi, on the Belfast–Derry line.

By air

City of Derry (LDY) is 35 minutes by car. Belfast International (BFS) is 1h. Belfast City (BHD) is 1h 15m.