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The small coastal village of WHITEHEAD marks the entry point to the narrow peninsula of Islandmagee. There's little to detain you here, apart from a bracing stroll along the promenade or onto the Black Head path and its cliff-top views of the Down coast to the south. However, the village provides a base for visiting the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland at the end of Castleview Road. There's a collection of steam locomotives for viewing and riding (Sun afternoons in July & Aug) and the Society runs a number of summer excursions from Belfast Central to Portrush and from Whitehead to Derry (tel 028/9333 5367 for details). Seven miles long and two wide, ISLANDMAGEE is a predominantly rural strip of land with the blatant exception of the Ballylumford power station at its northern tip. In the seventeenth century, the "island" was held by the Bissett family in return for an annual payment of goshawks, which breed on the cliffs. The most notable of these cliffs are the Gobbins , halfway along the eastern seaboard, and once much visited, though the paths and bridges constructed to guide tourists have long since fallen into disrepair and the cliffs are remembered more for a notorious incident in 1641 when the local inhabitants were hurled into the sea by soldiers from the Carrickfergus garrison. You can approach the cliffs via a gate on Gobbins Road, but much of the path around the cliffs is now decidedly unsafe. Further north lies the tiny harbour village of Portmuck , named after the apparently pig-shaped island it faces ( muc being Irish for "pig"), and a sandy beach at Brown's Bay , where there's a caravan park that allows camping (tel 028/9338 2497). At Ballylumford , at the tip of the peninsula, you can catch a ferry across the water to Larne (Mon-Sat hourly 7.30am-5.30pm; 60p). On the road to Millbay you can spot the 4000-year old Ballylumford Dolmen, known locally as the "Druid's Altar", sitting incongruously in the front garden of a house. There are few bars on the peninsula, but one, the Millbay Inn , in Mill Bay, holds regular traditional sessions on Wednesday nights and offers B&B (tel 028/9338 2436; GBP40-55).
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