Who knows if you're even supposed to review these kind of things on Yelp, but I'll give it a shot until someone takes it down. If you've visited Ceide Fields nearby, your tour guide might have pointed out Downpatrick Head, a sea stack off the coast. If your tour guide was like mine, they mention it in passing, making you think that it's some place you "can't get to from here" or is on a private estate where people aren't welcome. Wrong.
Drive to Ballycastle, turn north-ish on Dominick Street, and dead reckon (or follow Google Maps) to the end of the road, which leaves you in a gravel parking lot. An easy hike up a trail and through the hassock filled fields will bring to the sea cliffs which are absolutely, positively stunning. The towering sea stack is even taller than the point where the land runs out, and the visible rock layers are really something. The cliffs are being undermined by the sea, to the point where chunks of the land are collapsing in to form enormous blowholes, which, unlike the sheer sea cliffs, are completely fenced off for safety. As I think a website I found later points out, if it's windy, stay back. And probably lock the kids in the car, or you'll be going home one fewer.
There's nothing to stop you from falling in to the ocean, probably a bad thing since the closer you get to the edge, the better your view of the next finger of land jutting out in to the sea is. Just a little further and you'd have a better view of the layered cliffs or the wave smashing in to the sea caves that underpin the very cliff you're standing on... There were even people fishing off the high cliffs the day we were there - absolutely bonkers, since even a tug on your line might set you off balance, and these guys were insanely close to the edge.
You simply cannot miss this spot. It's undersold, at least by my guide, at Ceide Fields, and since it's super easy to get to, and absolutely awe inspiring, I can't imagine having missed this. We just stood at the cliffs edge and marveled at the sight. Good thing I left my DSLR in Chicago...I'm the guy taking vacation photos with a cell phone that I'm usually making fun of. read more