< Back to Itineraries

Waterfoot to Ballygally (Maiden Island Options)

14 NM paddle from Waterfoot to Ballygally with extra 9NM option to Maidens

Downloads

	Waterfoot to Ballygally (Maiden Island Options) 717.9 KB

Points of Interest

Waterfoot, Carnlough Harbour, Glencloy Bridge, Glenarm Ballygally, The Maidens

Itinerary

The East Coast Trail begins at Waterfoot beach at the base of Glenariff, as spectacular a setting as anyone could wish. There is a sizeable car park and easy beach access to Red Bay.  At the outer edge of this bay, and further south off Glenarm, are the floating pens of salmon farms run by a local company. Young Atlantic salmon (smolts) are grown to marketable fish from 3 to 5 kg weight within the cages. Yellow buoys mark these sites and maintenance vessels come and go constantly.

The tide race off Garron Point can throw up sharp waves in windy conditions, and keeping close inshore can help avoid
the worst of this. From the rocky shore, paddlers can glimpse the rather sombre Garron Tower tucked behind the wooded slopes. This was built in 1848-49 for the
Marchioness of Londonderry, and in its present extended state houses the local grammar School.

The cliff scenery from Waterfoot to just south of Glenarm is impressive; great slabs of vivid white chalk topped by rugged grey-black basalt. In many places the chalk rests on unstable sand or soft Lias clay and slippages occur. The distinctive stepped profile of Garron Point is due to slumped chalk and basalt cliffs, while at Madman’s Window car park a little south of Glenarm the recent collapse of a large chalk outcrop has left rubble and some blocks the size of a small
house lying close to the coast road – the scar on the hillside is very obvious.

Both Carnlough and Glenarm have small and sheltered harbours. The former has a good slipway for landing and the village offers plenty of choices for refreshments, from
chippies to the old Londonderry Arms Hotel, once owned by Sir Winston Churchill.

Coming ashore at Glenarm is at an easy beach landing at the car park close to the parish Church. Note the salmon cages offshore, as mentioned earlier. There’s a tearoom, open from May to September, in the nearby walled garden of Glenarm Castle.

From the sea, the scars of now disused chalk quarries can be seen behind both Carnlough and Glenarm. The former’s harbour was busy in the nineteenth century with shipping carrying this white limestone to Scotland where most of it ended up used in the north of England iron smelting industry. There are many pleasure craft based in these harbours, but also a few lobster, crab and scallop fishing boats, reminders of once thriving fishing communities. For many years, wild
salmon were netted off Carnlough, but this fishery is now closed.

The hinterland south of Glenarm to Ballygally is sheep pasture, rising gently to a wooded escarpment, above which lies the extensive blanket bog and moorland of the Garron Plateau. This is as close to wilderness as can be found in Northern Ireland, a place populated by Irish hares and soaring buzzards. The shoreline along this part of the coast is also less rugged, a salt and pepper mix of boulders and stones of chalk and basalt. A narrow fringe of underwater
kelp “forests” exists where a stony seabed provides holdfasts for these brown and red seaweeds.

The approach to Ballygally is marked by the rounded rocky headland - some say this exhibits the profile of a sleeping man’s face. There is a beach landing just south of Ballygally Castle Hotel and a good slipway at the car park a little further south. Ballygally slipway is a good embarkation for a circuit of The Maidens lighthouse islands, lying just over 4 NM offshore.

The tide sets strongly at approx 5 – 6 knots around The Maidens – and given its distance off shore – this trip should only be undertaken by experienced and competent paddlers
who have a good working knowledge of coastal and off shore navigation.

If visiting The Maidens, stay north of
Ballygally Head to avoid shipping plying in and out of Larne port. Landing on the West Maiden is tricky, and is best on the rock shelves on the west side. The East Maiden has steps and rock shelves where landing is possible at the north-west and south-east corners. Strong tidal streams do not make these landings easy. Bear in mind that the East Maidens lighthouse still operates and is the property of the Dublin-based Commissioners of Irish Lights. These
lighthouses began working in 1829 but the West Maidens light (actually on the north island) was abandoned in 1903.

The East Maidens lighthouse was modernised and eventually became automated in 1977, resulting in the lighthouse keepers leaving the station. It’s been reported that The Maidens Rock was never a popular posting amongst the
lighthouse-keeping fraternity, a location known as a “hardship station”, although a lot less remote than some offshore lighthouses around Ireland. Now seals and seabirds
have taken over the islands, and this part of the North Channel is a good spot to look out for porpoises and other cetaceans.

Getting to the Start

Take the A2/Cushendall Road east from Ballycastle turning right onto the A2/Bridge Road. Continue along the A2 to Glenariff/ Waterfoot and turn left onto Garron Road which runs along the beach at Waterfoot.