Shannon O'Brien Travel Itineraries

The best destinations

Photo of Northern Ireland
Photo of Northern Ireland

The Best of Northern Ireland

#22 best destination in the world

Map view

Giant's Gate and Causeway Coast Circular, Giant's Causeway

Photo of Giant's Causeway

Walk difficulty: Easy

Best time to visit: June-Aug

Cost: $

  • Area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption
  • The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea
  • Most of the columns are hexagonal, although some have four, five, seven, or eight sides

Titanic Belfast

Photo of Titanic Belfast

Best time to visit: June-Aug

Cost: $

  • Monument opened in 2012, featuring Belfast's maritime heritage on the site of the former Harland & Wolff shipyard in the city's Titanic Quarter where the RMS Titanic was built
  • It tells the stories of the Titanic, which hit an iceberg and sank during her maiden voyage in 1912, and her sister ships RMS Olympic and HMHS Britannic

Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge

Photo of Carrick-a-Rede

Walk difficulty: Easy

Best time to visit: June-Aug

Cost: $

  • Rope bridge near Ballintoy that links the mainland to the tiny island of Carrickarede
  • It is thought salmon fishermen have been building bridges to the island for over 350 years, and it has taken many forms over the years
  • In the 1970s it had only one handrail and large gaps between the slats
  • The current wire rope and Douglas fir bridge was made in Belfast and raised early in 2008

Dunluce Castle

Photo of Dunluce Castle

Best time to visit: June-Aug

Cost: $

  • Now-ruined medieval castle in Northern Ireland, the seat of Clan MacDonnell
  • It is located on the edge of a basalt outcropping and is accessible via a bridge connecting it to the mainland
  • The castle is surrounded by extremely steep drops on either side, which may have been an important factor to the early Christians and Vikings who were drawn to this place where an early Irish fort once stood

Dark Hedges

Photo of Dark Hedges

Best time to visit: June-Aug

Cost: $

  • Avenue of beech trees along Bregagh Road between Armoy and Stranocum
  • The trees form an atmospheric tunnel that has been used as a location in the popular television series Game of Thrones, which has resulted in the avenue becoming a popular attraction

Ulster Museum

Photo of Ulster Museum

Best time to visit: June-Aug

Cost: $

  • Northern Ireland's largest museum, located in the Botanic Gardens in Belfast, featuring material from the collections of fine art and applied art, archaeology, ethnography, treasures from the Spanish Armada, local history, numismatics, industrial archaeology, botany, zoology and geology
  • The museum contains important collections of Irish birds, mammals, insects, molluscs, marine invertebrates, flowering plants, algae and lichens, as well as an archive of books and manuscripts relating to Irish natural history

Belfast City Hall

Photo of Belfast City Hall

Best time to visit: June-Aug

Cost: $

  • Civic building of Belfast City Council located in Donegall Square, commissioned to replace the Old Town Hall
  • The catalyst for change came in 1888 when Belfast was awarded city status by Queen Victoria
  • This was in recognition of Belfast's rapid expansion and thriving linen, rope-making, shipbuilding and engineering industries
  • During this period Belfast briefly overtook Dublin as the most populous city in Ireland

Old Bushmills Distillery

Photo of Old Bushmills Distillery

Best time to visit: June-Aug

Cost: $

  • Alcohol distillery (primarily Irish whiskey) in Bushmills
  • The company that originally built the distillery was formed in 1784, although the date 1608 is printed on the label of the brand – referring to an earlier date when a royal licence was granted to a local landowner to distil whiskey in the area

Castle Ward

Photo of Castle Ward

Best time to visit: June-Aug

Cost: $

  • Castle Ward is an 18th-century National Trust property located near the village of Strangford
  • Castle Ward is open to the public and includes landscaped gardens, a fortified tower house, Victorian laundry, theater, restaurant, shop, saw mill and a working corn mill