Experience the best of Bushmills

Bushmills sits beside the River Bush, a few kilometres inland on the north Antrim coast. The village grew around its distillery, licensed in 1608, and the stone buildings around the square have the look of an old trading town. The Giant's Causeway, a UNESCO-listed shore of some 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, lies about three kilometres to the north.

Dunluce Castle, a ruined fortress on a sea cliff, stands a few kilometres west along the coast, and the rope bridge at Carrick-a-Rede, strung across a chasm to a small island, is a drive to the east. The beaches and seaside towns of Portrush and Portstewart provide sand and surf, and the whole shoreline is followed by the Causeway Coastal Route.

Soda bread, potato bread and an Ulster fry of bacon, eggs and sausage sit alongside fresh seafood from the north coast on local menus. Weather swings quickly on this exposed coast, and light lingers late on summer evenings. Spring, with its long days and quieter paths, is a good time to see the cliffs.