Co. Antrim BALLYMENA

Galgorm

Marlagh Lodge

Galgorm Castle Golf Club

Galgorm Castle Golf Club is an exciting mixture of the new and the old. This 18 hole, 6736 yards par 72 Championship course is set in 220 acres of beautiful, mature parkland located in the heart of County Antrim. It is overlooked by Galgorm Castle, a site of great historical interest and one of the finest examples of Jacobean architecture in Ireland, which was built in 1618 by Sir Faithful Fortescue.

Situated a mile and a half outside Ballymena, it is the ancestral home of the Brooke family which Christopher inherited from his grandmother in 1980.  About 15 years later, he  employed English architect  Simon Gidman (Vice President of the British Institute of Golf Course Architects) to design a golf course on ideal, wooded terrain which has since become one of Northern Ireland's most popular parkland venues.

From the outset it has received wonderful reviews from both golf writers and players, rapidly building up a reputation as one of the finest inland courses in Ireland.

Distance and driving times (traffic dependent):

Royal County Down Golf Club     92km (57m), 1hr 19 mins
Royal Belfast Golf Club              60km (37m), 48 mins
Royal Portrush Golf Club            51km (32m), 50 mins
Portstewart Golf Club                 50km (31m), 51 mins                                         
Castlerock Golf Club                  43km (27m), 40 mins
Roe Park Golf Club                    63km (39m), 57 mins

Other distances, times and route planning

2 Old Galgorm Road

The gradualist approach has a lot of advantages when taking on a large garden and that is exactly the way the Glynns went about transforming their two and a half acres after they moved into their Victorian home 27 years ago.

Each year they set themselves a new project, uncovering a hidden rockery beside a pond, turning a small walled garden into a raised terrace with a herbaceous border down one side and raised beds on the other. The entrance gate was changed and an area known as The Point planted with dwarf conifers and rhododendrons, including the Glynns’ favourite yellow flowered rhododendrons like ‘Yellow Crest’ and the dwarf larch Larix kaempferi‘Nana’.

“In a garden this size I try to get something flowering every day of the year,” says Mrs Glynn. The result is a very rewarding garden with subtle changes of mood and an enviable collection of plants. Snowdrops – there are over 200 varieties of snowdrop including autumn flowering Galanthus reginaolgae - are among favourites which include witch hazels, alpines cosseted in over 30 troughs, erythroniums and hellebores like H x‘Eric Smithii’ planted along the area known as Paddy’s Path after the donor of some of the many ferns in this shady area.

The bog garden where gunnera, Himalayan primula and cardiocrinum lilies flourish, contrasts with the woodland areas planted with rhododendrons, spring bulbs and Meconopis ‘Slieve Donard’ and the rockery area graced with Hydrangea sargentiana villosa.

 

Causeway Cheese Company, The

Mid Antrim Museum at The Braid

Named after the river that runs through Ballymena, the Braid weaves together history, arts and culture alongside contemporary conference, tourism and civic facilities on a site that has been for centuries the centre of local civic life.

From family activities to special interest events, there's something for everyone. Once inside the galleries tell the story of Mid-Antrim from earliest times to the present day is told through a mix of state of the art interactive technology and amazing original artefacts.

Highlights include an exhibition revealing the turbulent medieval history of the region.