Binevenagh, Northern Ireland: Lava-hewn crags and cliffs at the end of one of the planet's great railway journeys

Our Secret Britain piece today takes a look at the view from the top of Binevenagh in Co Londonderry.

Binevenagh, Norhern Ireland.
Binevenagh, Norhern Ireland.
(Image credit: Alamy Stock Photo)

Hop on the Coleraine train at Londonderry and you’re in for ‘one of the most beautiful rail journeys in the world’, according to Michael Palin. By the time you’ve reached the Binevenagh AONB, you may agree.

The mountain is the westernmost outcrop of the Antrim Plateau, with lava-hewn crags and cliffs that have dominated the skyline for 60 million years.

The peak of Binevenagh at sunset is a sight you'll not quickly forget.

The summit of Binevenagh, where rare alpine birds soar over forested slopes (there’s easy access from Binevenagh Lake, full of rainbow trout), affords views stretching beyond the golden sands of Benone Strand as far as Scotland.

Across the plateau is Mussenden Temple, which also overlooks the Atlantic and was built by an 18th-century earl in honour of his niece, of whom some say he was suspiciously fond.

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Annunciata Elwes

Annunciata grew up in the wilds of Lancashire and now lives in Hampshire with a husband, two daughters and an awful pug called Parsley. She’s been floating round the Country Life office for more than a decade, her work winning the Property Magazine of the Year Award in 2022 (Property Press Awards). Before that, she had a two-year stint writing ‘all kinds of fiction’ for The Sunday Times Travel Magazine, worked in internal comms for Country Life’s publisher (which has had many names in recent years but was then called IPC Media), and spent another year researching for a historical biographer, whose then primary focus was Graham Greene and John Henry Newman and whose filing system was a collection of wardrobes and chests of drawers filled with torn scraps of paper. During this time, she regularly gave tours of 17th-century Milton Manor, Oxfordshire, which may or may not have been designed by Inigo Jones, and co-founded a literary, art and music festival, at which Johnny Flynn headlined. When not writing and editing for Country Life, Annunciata is also a director of TIN MAN ART, a contemporary art gallery founded in 2021 by her husband, James Elwes.