Giant's Causeway: the cliff top and the Shepherd's Steps

From the National Trust walkers' car park, follow the track west to the visitor centre and climb behind it onto the cliff-top path. Walk north-east along the cliff edge past Weir's Snout to the top of the Shepherd's Steps. Go down the steep stone steps and turn left along the lower path to the Grand Causeway, where the road ends among the columns. Return up the shore road past Portnaboe to the visitor centre and the car park. The loop goes anticlockwise.

It is 3.7 km round with 85 m of ascent; allow about an hour. The grade is Easy: good paths, a long flight of steps down and a steady road back up.

The Causeway is National Trust land and a World Heritage Site. The paths are free from dawn to dusk; only the Visitor Experience (exhibition and tours) needs a ticket. The cliff edges are unfenced and rocks sometimes fall. The columns are slippery when wet and dangerous in high wind. A shuttle bus uses the shore road. Keep dogs on leads.

The walkers' car park costs £12 a vehicle through the JustPark app (members free); the visitor centre car park is for ticket holders only. Ulsterbus 172 runs from Coleraine, which has trains from Belfast and Derry; the 402 Causeway Rambler and other coast buses are seasonal.

Route drawn by Global Adventurer along OpenStreetMap paths (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), with figures worked out from it. Check the forecast and the ground on the day: paths change.