Holiday Cottages In Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland has around 145 self-catering cottages on selfcatering.co.uk, a small collection for a small country. Most of it sits along the north coast, with smaller pockets inland by the Mournes and the Fermanagh lakes. It is very much a place to book early, and even so around 80 of those cottages welcome dogs.

Where to stay in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is made up of eleven council areas, and the cottages are heavily weighted towards the north coast. They are listed below with the busiest areas first, so the places with the most choice sit at the top.

• Causeway Coast and Glens has by far the most, taking in the Giant's Causeway, the seaside resorts and the Glens of Antrim
• Fermanagh and Omagh in the west is lakeland country, built around the waters of Lough Erne
• Newry, Mourne and Down in the south-east covers the Mourne Mountains and the County Down coast
• Mid and East Antrim runs along the Antrim coast around Larne and Carrickfergus
• Mid Ulster is a rural inland area reaching towards the Sperrin hills
• Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon holds the orchard country and the cathedral city of Armagh
• Ards and North Down wraps around Strangford Lough on the east coast
• Derry City and Strabane centres on the walled city in the north-west
• Antrim and Newtownabbey sits just north of Belfast by Lough Neagh
• Belfast is the capital, handy for a short city break
• Lisburn and Castlereagh lies on Belfast's southern edge

For a first visit the Causeway Coast is the obvious base, with the Mournes and the Fermanagh lakes the natural choices for hills and water respectively.

The Northern Ireland landscape

For a small country the scenery is varied. The north coast is the headline act, where the basalt columns of the Giant's Causeway step down into the sea on the Antrim shore, with the Glens of Antrim cutting green valleys back into the hills behind. In the south-east the Mourne Mountains rise straight from the County Down coast, a tight cluster of granite peaks crowned by Slieve Donard, the highest in the country. Out west, County Fermanagh is laced with water, the broad island-studded reaches of Lough Erne giving the county its lakeland character. Between them lie the Sperrin hills, the long sea inlet of Strangford Lough and the orchards of Armagh.

Things to do in Northern Ireland

The Causeway Coast packs in the best-known sights. The Giant's Causeway is the country's only natural World Heritage Site, the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge swings across to a tiny island nearby, and the avenue of beech trees known as the Dark Hedges draws film fans inland. Belfast tells the Titanic story at Titanic Belfast, on the slipways where the ship was built, and Derry is ringed by the most complete city walls in Ireland. The Mournes offer some of the finest hill walking, Lough Erne is a boating and angling centre with the monastic ruins of Devenish Island, and castles such as Carrickfergus and Dunluce stand guard along the coast.

When to visit Northern Ireland

Summer, from June to August, is the warmest and brightest stretch and the best time for the coast, the islands and the long evenings, though it is also when the Causeway and the honeypot sights are busiest. Late spring and early autumn bring quieter roads and often better value, with the Glens at their greenest in May and the hills colouring up in September. Winters are mild but wet and breezy, more suited to a snug inland cottage or a city break than a beach week. As ever on this coast, the weather changes quickly, so come prepared for showers in any season.

Dog-friendly and hot-tub cottages in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is good walking country, and around 80 of the cottages here take dogs, which fits the open beaches of the north coast and the hill paths of the Mournes. Around 25 properties come with a hot tub. With such a small overall stock the choice in any one area can be tight, so it pays to look across neighbouring council areas and to book well ahead for school holidays. A few beaches restrict dogs in high summer, so check locally before you set off.

Getting to Northern Ireland

Most visitors fly into Belfast, which has two airports: Belfast International to the west of the city and George Best Belfast City close to the centre. Car ferries cross from Scotland and England to Belfast and to Larne on the Antrim coast. Northern Ireland is also easy to reach overland from the Republic, with a fast road linking Dublin and Belfast and no border checks. Once you are there a car is the simplest way to reach the coast and the countryside, and distances are short, so most corners are within a couple of hours of Belfast.

Useful links

• Discover Northern Ireland
• Tourism Northern Ireland
• Walk Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four parts of the United Kingdom, occupying the north-eastern corner of the island of Ireland. It shares a land border to the south and west with the Republic of Ireland, an independent country, and faces Scotland across the narrow North Channel to the east, with the Irish Sea beyond. At its closest the Scottish coast is only a dozen or so miles away.

The country is made up of six counties, Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone, which were historically part of the Irish province of Ulster. At its centre lies Lough Neagh, the largest freshwater lake in the British Isles, and the land rises away from it into several upland areas: the Antrim plateau in the north-east, the Sperrin Mountains in the north-west and the compact granite Mourne Mountains in the south-east, where Slieve Donard is the highest point. The River Bann drains much of the interior, flowing north through Lough Neagh to the Atlantic.

The coast is short but dramatic, from the basalt columns of the Giant's Causeway and the cliffs of the Antrim shore to the long sea inlets of Strangford Lough and Belfast Lough and the lakeland of County Fermanagh in the west. Belfast, set at the head of its lough, is the capital and largest city, with Londonderry, also called Derry, the principal city of the north-west. The wider landscape is green, rural and gently farmed, much like the island as a whole.