A Walk in the Antrim Hills: Ancient Landscapes, Ancient Stones

I live near the beginning of the famous Antrim Coast, the rugged, even bleak route that runs along the north-east coast of Ireland up to the even-more-famous Giants’ Causeway. Most visitors (Game of Thrones has drawn many thousands) drive or are driven. But if you’re lucky to have fine weather, the hills above the coast make for tremendous walks.

Early on a slightly dank and chilly May morning, I’m dropped off at the edge of Ballyboley forest.

On Agnew’s Hill, I rest among tumbled stones. They could be natural - the landscape was scoured by ice in the glacial eras - but I think they’re archaeology, the remains of a stone circle of passage grave perhaps. While I sit pondering the question, a young fox slinks by me, with a quizzical tilt to his head.

Coming down off the hill, I cross a strange terrain of humped earthworks. These, I’m baffled by. Manmade? Ice-cut? Who knows?

One of the most distinctive landscape features of the region is the impressive, giant amphitheatre of Sallagh Braes. Here weathered layers of basalt have collapsed in a scallop-shell pattern. Hang gliders and buzzards soar on the winds off the sea. In the distance to the south, Larne Lough and the low peninsula of Islandmagee.

Not all the place names come from the Irish. I yomp over Scawt hill, which gets its name from the Ulster Scots 'scawd' meaning scaly, scabby or rugged, or 'scawt' meaning scruffy and contemptible. Scotland is clearly visible just a few miles across the sea, and in the bright May sunshine there is nothing contemptible here.

Between Ballygilbert Hill and Black Hill I pause at a standing stone, crudely phallic, though probably more from erosion than design. The weather is stunning, the Irish Sea almost Mediterranean blue. My feet ache, but there are only a few miles to go to my destination...