However, the main attractions of Northern Ireland are found along the coast: from the extraordinary volcanic landscape of the Giant’s Causeway to Carrickfergus, the best-preserved Norman castle in Ireland, passing through Victorian-style seaside resorts like Portstewart, tiny fishing villages, and very long sandy beaches such as Benone Strand, over 10 km of fine golden sand, awarded the Blue Flag by the European Union.
Mount Stewart House
Nestled in County Down (Northern Ireland), it is a spectacular 19th-century building famous for its splendid gardens, which, although created in the 1920s, are rich in exotic plants that thrived thanks to a particularly mild microclimate. Now owned by the National Trust, Mount Stewart belonged to the Londonderry family, whose most famous member was Lord Castlereagh, British Foreign Secretary from 1812 to 1822.
Giant’s Causeway
The northernmost point of Northern Ireland, so named because, according to legend, it was built by the giant Finn MacCool to cross the sea to Scotland. In reality, it is a peninsula formed by the erosion of a lava flow about 61 million years ago, made up of columns or “chimneys” of astonishing regularity.
