Cottages in Northern Ireland

Table of Contents

• At a glance: What should you know about renting a Cottage in Northern Ireland?
• Cottages in Northern Ireland: find your perfect retreat
• Exploring Northern Ireland: our top recommendations
• Activities: What are the top things to do and see in Northern Ireland?

• Stone cottages, wide choice: Whitewashed farm cottages, converted barns and coastguard houses sleep anywhere from two to twelve, most with a stove, a garden and off-road parking.
• Down and Antrim lead: County Down and County Antrim hold the densest cottage stock, with Fermanagh and the north coast close behind.
• Guests rate them highly: Our best-reviewed cottages sit at 9.5+, praised for warm welcomes, well-stocked kitchens and views over the Mournes or the sea.
• Built for slow weeks: Self-catering suits long, unhurried stays: farm shops, coastal drives and forest parks are usually minutes from the gate.
• Year-round appeal: Spring and autumn bring quiet lanes and lower prices, while a wood burner makes winter weekends genuinely comfortable.

Northern Ireland's cottages are mostly working buildings given a second life: whitewashed farmhouses, stone byres, gatehouses and coastguard cottages, scattered down lanes and along the coast. Here are the features guests look for most:

• Wood burners or open fires, with logs usually included
• Private gardens and terraces, some with cottages with hot tubs
• Enclosed grounds and hard floors at these dog-friendly cottages
• Sea, lough or mountain views, as at these beach cottages
• Full kitchens, utility rooms and off-road parking for two cars

Most are open all year, which makes a winter cottage week entirely practical.

What are the best areas to stay in Northern Ireland?

For a first cottage break, the Mourne Mountains and the County Down coast around Rostrevor are hard to beat. The table below details regions for specific interests:

What do our guests say?

Cottage guests in Northern Ireland review consistently on three things: how warm the place was, how well the kitchen was equipped, and how helpful the owner turned out to be. Our best-rated cottages score 9.5+, and reviewers keep returning to the same details: fires already laid, eggs or soda bread left on the table, and a garden that looks straight at the mountains. Couples, families and walking groups all feature, and repeat stays are common.

Here are our top-rated cottages in Northern Ireland from the past year:

1. Rosslare Cottage - 9.9+: A four-person County Antrim cottage with an open fire and full kitchen, praised for its quiet setting and easy coastal access.
2. Foot of the Mournes - Cottage - Sleeps 4 - Parking - 9.6+: A family-friendly County Down cottage for four at the foot of the Mournes, with parking and reliable Wi-Fi.
3. Magical 3-Bed Stone Built Cottage - Sleeps 6 - 9.6+: A County Down stone cottage sleeping six, with a terrace and a kitchen guests describe as genuinely well stocked.

Northern Ireland sits in the north-east corner of the island of Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, gathering six counties of drumlins, loughs and basalt coastline around two walkable cities.

🥗Where to eat in Northern Ireland?

According to Google Maps data and reviews, Ox is the best rated restaurant in Northern Ireland. Below is a table showing the top 5 highly-rated restaurants hand-picked by our travel experts.

⭐Our guests' recommendation: Our guest traveller Aisha Bell recommends the The Bull & Ram in Northern Ireland: after a week self-catering near Ballynahinch, she booked it for the one night nobody wanted to cook, and rated the local beef above anything else that week.

1. Visit Titanic Belfast
2. Walk the Gobbins cliff path
3. Circle the Derry~Londonderry walls
4. Go underground at Marble Arch Caves
5. Tour Castle Coole
6. Walk Portstewart Strand
7. Explore Mount Stewart and Strangford Lough

1. Visit Titanic Belfast

   Titanic Belfast stands on the slipways where the ship was built, and its nine galleries take you from the linen-and-shipyard city of 1900 through the fit-out, the launch and the aftermath. Allow two to three hours, and book a morning slot to avoid the queue. The ticket includes SS Nomadic, the last White Star vessel afloat, moored a short walk away. The surrounding Titanic Quarter is flat and easy to walk, with cafés along the Maritime Mile.

2. Walk the Gobbins cliff path

   The Gobbins is a guided cliff path on the Islandmagee peninsula, threaded across black basalt on bridges, tunnels and steps cut just above the sea. It runs roughly three kilometres and takes around two and a half hours with a guide, who points out the fulmars and kittiwakes nesting a few metres away. Tours are weather-dependent and must be booked ahead, and you will need proper boots and a waterproof. It is under an hour from Belfast.

3. Circle the Derry~Londonderry walls

   The city's seventeenth-century walls are the most complete in Ireland, and the full circuit takes about an hour at a stroll. From the ramparts you look down over the Bogside murals on one side and the Guildhall on the other. Add the Peace Bridge, the Tower Museum and the Museum of Free Derry to make a full day. The city is small, walkable and better for a long lunch than most people expect.

4. Go underground at Marble Arch Caves

   In County Fermanagh, the Marble Arch Caves open with a short boat trip along an underground river before the walkways lead through chambers of stalactites and calcite flows. Tours last around seventy-five minutes and stay at nine degrees all year, so bring a jumper. Above ground, the Cuilcagh Boardwalk — the "stairway to heaven" — climbs across blanket bog to a plateau edge, a very different two hours from the same car park.

5. Tour Castle Coole

   Castle Coole, on the edge of Enniskillen, is a neoclassical mansion faced in Portland stone and finished in the 1790s. The guided tour covers the state rooms, the servants' tunnel and the Regency furniture, much of it original to the house. Outside, a wooded estate of some seven hundred acres runs down to Lough Coole, where a colony of greylag geese has wintered for centuries. The walk around the lough takes about an hour.

6. Walk Portstewart Strand

   Portstewart Strand is two miles of firm sand backed by one of Ireland's largest dune systems, and you can still drive onto the beach at the northern end. Walk south to the mouth of the River Bann, or take the dune trail behind for orchids and butterflies in early summer. The promenade at Portstewart has the best ice cream on the coast, and Portstewart itself puts you a few minutes from the sand.

7. Explore Mount Stewart and Strangford Lough

   Mount Stewart on the Ards Peninsula has one of the finest gardens in these islands, laid out in themed compartments that shelter tender planting in the lough's mild air. The wider estate has waymarked woodland and lakeside trails. Beyond the wall, Strangford Lough holds hundreds of tidal islands, seals on the rocks and, in autumn, thousands of brent geese arriving from the Arctic.