Crawfordsburn, Sruth Chráfard, Co. Down

Sruth Chráfard · Co. Down

One street, one famous inn, and a country park that does the heavy lifting.

Crawfordsburn is a small affluent village four kilometres west of Bangor, on a back road between two larger places. It does not look like much from the A2 - a row of white-painted houses, a hotel, a sign for the country park, a turn-off you nearly miss. That is the whole village. Six hundred-odd people live here. Most days they share it with several thousand visitors who are technically going somewhere else.

The somewhere else is Crawfordsburn Country Park, which stretches from the back of the village down a wooded glen, past a waterfall, and out onto a kilometre of beach at Helen's Bay. It is Belfast's go-to country park - the one your auntie takes the kids to, the one the wedding photographers book months ahead, the one that absorbs a city's worth of Sunday afternoons without ever feeling truly full. The village itself functions as the carpark and the lunch.

The Old Inn is the other reason anyone has heard of the place. Records show a building on the site in 1614, which makes it one of the oldest hotels in Ireland by the only honest reckoning - the one with paperwork. The mail coach to the Donaghadee packet boats changed horses here in the eighteenth century. C.S. Lewis chose it for his honeymoon in 1958. Tennyson, Thackeray, Swift, Dickens and Trollope are all reputed to have stopped through, though the Inn's own historians admit you cannot really prove any of them.

Come for an afternoon, not a week. Walk the glen, eat at the Inn, take the coastal path one way or the other, get the train back. Two hours and you have seen the postcard. Stay for a wedding and the postcard becomes confetti underfoot.

Population

632 (2021 census)

Walk score

One main street, country park out the back door

Founded

Estate purchased by William Crawford from Lord Clanbrassil, 1670

Coords

54.6731° N, 5.7339° 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 country park

A glen, a waterfall, two beaches.

Crawfordsburn Country Park runs 3.5km of coastline between Helen's Bay and the village, with a wooded glen leading up to a waterfall the Old Inn sits directly above. Belfast's Sunday afternoon, basically.

Walks & outings → 02 The Old Inn

Records say 1614. The thatch is older.

One of the oldest hotels in Ireland by any reasonable reckoning. The mail-coach to Donaghadee changed horses here; C.S. Lewis honeymooned upstairs in 1958. The 1614 Bar pours pints under the same roof.

Stories & lore → 03 The coastal path

Walk to Holywood or Bangor. Either works.

The North Down Coastal Path runs through the country park. Helen's Bay west to Holywood, Crawfordsburn east to Bangor. No car. No ticket. A train back from either end.

Walks & outings →

02 / 08

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
The Old Inn - Restaurant	Hotel restaurant, AA Rosette	€€€	The serious end of the hotel. Seasonal menu, Northern Irish producers, French-inspired pub-and-fine-dining hybrid. Book ahead for weekends - the country park empties straight into the dining room.
The 1614 Bar	Hotel bar & food	€€	Casual end of the Old Inn. Pints, light bites, live music some nights, sport on the screens. The room people actually end up in after a walk in the glen.

03 / 08

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
The Old Inn	Boutique hotel, Galgorm Collection	The only place to stay in the village, and the reason most people stop here at all. Refurbished by Galgorm in recent years - the spa sits above the country park. AA Hotel of the Year 2017/18. Book weeks ahead for any Saturday in summer.

04 / 08

Stories & lore.

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

The family that named the place

The Sharman Crawfords

William Crawford bought the estate from Lord Clanbrassil in 1670, and the family held it for 277 years - until 1947, when the last colonel sold up. In between, William Sharman Crawford (1780-1861) became one of Ulster's most useful landlords, an MP who spent his career arguing for tenants' rights - fair rent, fixity of tenure, free sale of goodwill, the Ulster Custom written into law. He died at Crawfordsburn House in 1861. The present Crawfordsburn House was built in 1906 by Vincent Craig, the architect who also did the Royal Ulster Yacht Club down the road in Bangor.

Why a tiny village has a 1614 hotel

The mail-coach inn

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Donaghadee was one of the principal cross-channel ports to Britain - the short hop to Portpatrick in Scotland was the standard mail route. The coach from Belfast to Donaghadee changed horses at The Old Inn at Crawfordsburn. That is why a village this small had a hotel this grand: it was a service station for the Royal Mail. The notable persons who allegedly drank here - Swift, Tennyson, Thackeray, Dickens, Trollope - were on their way somewhere else.

C.S. Lewis's perfect fortnight

Jack and Joy

In July 1958, C.S. Lewis - Belfast-born, by then long settled in Oxford - brought his American wife Joy Davidman back to Northern Ireland for what they called a perfect fortnight and a belated honeymoon. They stayed at The Old Inn. Joy had been diagnosed with cancer in 1956 and would die in 1960. Lewis would write A Grief Observed about it. The room they stayed in is still pointed out, and the Inn leans gently on the connection - but the leaning is honest. He really did stay. He really did love the place.

Two six-inch guns aimed at the Lough

Grey Point Fort

Out at the end of the country park, where the headland turns into Belfast Lough, sits a pentagonal coastal battery built between 1904 and 1907. Two 6-inch Mark VII breech-loading guns, mounted on Marquess of Dufferin's land bought for £8,400, aimed at any German ship that might fancy a try at the Belfast shipyards. They never fired in anger. The battery closed in 1956, fell derelict, was passed to the country park in 1971, and a Territorial Army unit started restoring it in 1987. There is a small military museum on site now. Free to wander. The guns still point.

The name before the Crawfords

Ballymullan

Before the Plantation of Ulster, this place was Baile Uí Mhaoláin - Ballymullan, the townland of the Mullan family. The Crawfords arrived from Scotland, bought the estate, and renamed the burn (the stream running through the glen) after themselves. The new name stuck. The old one survives only in the townland records.

05 / 08

Things to do outside.

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

The Glen Walk to the waterfall Out the back of the village, down through the wooded glen, to the waterfall the Old Inn sits above. Easy underfoot, dogs welcome, the kind of walk that pretends to be more remote than it is.

2 km returndistance

45 mintime

Crawfordsburn to Helen's Bay beach Through the glen, under the railway viaduct, out onto the sand. Two sandy beaches at the bottom. Belfast Lough opens out and the Antrim coast sits across the water.

3 km returndistance

1 hourtime

North Down Coastal Path - west Helen's Bay to Holywood along the shore. Grey Point Fort about halfway. Train back from Holywood in twelve minutes.

6 km one waydistance

1.5 hourstime

North Down Coastal Path - east Crawfordsburn to Bangor along the cliffs. Bigger views, busier in summer. Train back from Bangor.

5 km one waydistance

1.25 hourstime

Grey Point Fort loop Country park to the headland and back. The fort is open most weekends - check before you go if that is the point of the walk.

4 km loopdistance

1.25 hourstime

06 / 08

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Glen full of wild garlic and bluebells, beaches empty, light unreal at five in the afternoon.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Carpark fills by ten on a sunny Sunday. Walk in from Helen's Bay station instead, or come early. Weddings every Saturday at the Old Inn.

◐ Mind yourself

Autumn

Sep-Oct

The glen goes copper. Sundays still busy but the weekdays empty out. The locals' favourite season here.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

The park stays open. Bring boots - the path through the glen turns to mud. The Old Inn's bar is built for a January afternoon.

◉ Go

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.

Driving in on a sunny weekend

The carpark fills by mid-morning and the village street has nowhere to put you. Train to Helen's Bay (nine minutes from Bangor) and walk in through the park.

Booking the Old Inn for a quiet weekend in summer

There is a wedding most Saturdays. The dining room and the 1614 Bar can be full of confetti and a band. The Inn is honest about this if you ring and ask.

Expecting a village to explore

There is one street. The country park is the village. Plan the visit around the glen, the beach, and the coastal path - not around wandering Crawfordsburn itself, because you will be done in ten minutes.

Crawfordsburn railway station

It closed in 1997 and the platforms were lifted in 2001. The nearest station is Helen's Bay, ten minutes' walk through the country park.

Getting there.

By car

Belfast to Crawfordsburn is 20 minutes on the A2. Bangor is 5 minutes east, Holywood 10 minutes west. Country park has a paid carpark - full by midday on sunny weekends.

By bus

Translink Ulsterbus services run along the A2 between Belfast and Bangor; nearest stop is on the main road, a few minutes walk from the village. For frequency, the train from Helen's Bay is the better bet.

By train

No station in the village since 1997. Helen's Bay (one stop on the Belfast-Bangor line) is ten minutes' walk through the country park. Trains every half hour from Belfast Lanyon Place; 20 minutes from town, 9 minutes from Bangor.

By air

Belfast City (BHD) is 15 minutes by car - the obvious airport. Belfast International is 35 minutes. Dublin is 2 hours by road.

Next on the tour

Co. Down

Bangor

Five minutes east. The big seaside town next door. Marina, McKee Clock, the train back to Belfast.

Co. Down

Holywood

Ten minutes west along the coast. Maypole on the high street, Rory McIlroy from up the road, the Ulster Folk Museum on the edge of town.

Co. Down

Donaghadee

Twenty minutes east. The packet-boat port the mail coach was heading to when it changed horses at the Old Inn. Lighthouse, harbour, Grace Neill's.

Co. Down

Groomsport

Eight kilometres east along the shore to a fishermen's harbour with a long memory.

Co. Down

Helen's Bay

Next door, a kilometre east, a railway station named for a poet and a beach in the country park.