Cushendun

Cushendun is a conservation village on the Antrim coast that looks as if it has drifted over from Cornwall, and that was the point: Ronald McNeill, Baron Cushendun, had Clough Williams-Ellis design it in 1912 to please his Penzance-born wife Maud, and after her death in 1925 the architect added the whitewashed row known as Maud's Cottages. The National Trust has cared for most of the village and the Glenmona parkland since 1954. Its name comes from the Irish for "beside the River Dun", and the Mull of Kintyre is only about 15 miles across the North Channel. Wander past the square, the sheltered harbour and the neo-Georgian Glenmona House, find the ruins of 14th-century Carra Castle and its Bronze Age standing stones, look for red squirrels in the woods beside Glenmona early or late in the day, and see the red sandstone caves that featured in Game of Thrones. Dogs on leads are welcome throughout the village and on the beach. Reviewers love the quiet, golden-sand beach, calling the village far less touristy than its neighbours. One tip from visitors: the car park beside the beach has toilets.