Dunluce Castle

Dunluce stands on a basalt outcrop almost separated from the mainland, reached by a bridge over a gap that drops straight to the sea. There has been a castle here since the fourteenth century; the buildings you walk through are mostly sixteenth and seventeenth century, including a Scottish-style gatehouse with round turrets and the shell of a manor house built when the family turned from defence to display. Part of the kitchen block is said to have fallen into the sea in 1639. Below runs the Mermaid's Cave, a sea cave passing clean through the rock. In the fields behind, archaeologists have uncovered the street plan of a planned town of 1608, abandoned within decades.

What you actually see

• The bridge and gatehouse - the crossing onto the stack and its Scottish round turrets.
• The manor house - a seventeenth-century residence built for comfort, now roofless.
• The Mermaid's Cave - a sea cave running clean through the rock below.
• The lost town - excavated streets of a planned settlement of 1608 in the field behind.

When to go

Long summer evenings give the best light on the seaward face, and the site closes earlier from October. The Causeway Coast is busiest in July and August, when the car park overflows onto the road. Wind here is constant and a still day on this coast is rare. The cave below is reachable only at suitable tides.

Honest expectations

It is a ruin, roofless throughout, with little shelter and nothing much on site. The cliff edges are guarded but the drops are real and children need holding. Photographs taken from the coast road viewpoint are better than anything you can get inside the walls. The visit takes under two hours and the ticket feels steep for that.

Nearby

Bushmills village, the Giant's Causeway and the strands at Portrush and Whiterocks.