Antrim Coast and Glens AONB Management Plan 2008-2018
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Antrim Coast & Glens Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Management Plan 2008 - 2018 Area of Outsatanding Natural Beauty this plan. 3 Contents Foreword 1 1 A shared heritage A very special place – a celebration of the Antrim Coast and Glens 3 The character of the Antrim Coast and Glens landscape 4 A vision for the Antrim Coast and Glens AONB in 2028 8 Community perceptions 9 Caring for the Antrim Coast and Glens AONB 11 2 Themes Land, coast and sea 14 Historic environment 23 Sustainable communities 31 3 Making it happen The next steps 42 Monitoring the plan 47 4 Contexts Management Plan contexts 49 The Management Planning process 49 Thanks and acknowledgements 51 Glossary 51 Tilly Molloy’s 18 Main Street Armoy Co. Antrim Northern Ireland BT53 8RQ Tel: 028 2075 2100 Fax: 028 2075 2101 Email: [email protected] Foreword he Antrim Coast and Glens is a very special part Tof Northern Ireland. Its dramatic coastline with headlands and harbours, its magnificent glens with fast flowing rivers and its unique sense of light and space have given the area a special character that is appreciated by local people and by the many visitors who travel here every year. The Antrim Coast and Glens is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), designated in 1988 to help protect its special character – recognising it as one of Carnlough and the Antrim Plateau RKE the finest landscapes in the United Kingdom. There are nine AONBs in Northern Ireland and a further 40 in England and Wales – all treasured national assets that need protection for present and future generations. Alderman Harry Connolly, This is a time of great change in the countryside. Housing and infrastructure Chairman of the Antrim Coast and Glens AONB Management development, changing trends in agriculture, and greater demands for tourism and Group and Deputy Mayor of recreation are all adding pressure on the land. Protecting the AONB and preventing Ballymoney Borough Council damage to its precious resources are crucial both for the landscape itself and for the livelihoods of its communities. This Management Plan – the first for the AONB – helps to highlight the things that make this area so characteristic and then presents a series of recommendations that collectively will help to conserve and enhance its features, and protect its culture and traditions. It has been produced following consultation with communities and with many organisations that work in the area – your participation has helped to shape a plan that we hope will make a big difference to the AONB. The Management Plan is for everyone who lives and works in, or visits, the AONB. We all have a part to play in shaping the future of the Antrim Coast and Glens. It will help to guide our actions so that future generations can enjoy this very special place. 1 Management Plan 2008 - 2018 A shared heritage View from Torr Head RKE The Antrim Coast and Glens is an area of contrasts – with dramatic cliffs and headlands, the wild open expanse of moorland, gentle bays and valleys, and Rathlin Island, Northern Ireland’s only inhabited offshore island. 2 A very special place The coastline is a dramatic sequence of prominent Rathlin Island cliffs, headlands and wide bays at the foot of each glen with Rathlin Island as an outcrop of the basalt plateau perched to the north. The AONB boundary extends out to sea – a diverse range of habitats and an enormously Ballycastle valuable resource for marine life, for the economy and for tourism. Views out to Islay, Jura and the Mull of Kintyre are a crucial part of its character and a reminder of the Glentaisie proximity of Scotland and its islands. Glenshesk The landscape you see today is the result of an incredibly Ballymoney Cushendun varied geology and thousands of years of human settlement. Fields of ‘ladder farms’ with stone walls or Glendun Glencorp hedgebanks run up the sides of the glens, while scattered Glenaan Cushendall woodlands perch on steeper slopes. The hilltops are covered with open grassland and blanket bogs, with their rich and often uncommon wildlife, and in places bear the scars of mining and turf cutting. Glenballyeamon Glenariff Carnlough The long history of settlement is marked by ancient Glenarm earthworks and tombs, stone enclosures, churches and castles. Groups of farmsteads – the ‘clachans’ – Glencloy and isolated whitewashed farmhouses are scattered AONB Boundary through the valleys, together with characteristic Glenarm round gate posts and whin (local name for Ballygally gorse) hedgerows. It is also marked by a Ballymena community with local traditions and culture, A very Larne and a strong sense of place. special place The AONB is home today to 22,500 people, grouped in settlements mostly along the A celebration of the coastline, or scattered in farms throughout the area. These thriving and dynamic Antrim Coast and Glens communities, with their traditions of arts, music and sports, and their strong connections with the land, are Once isolated from the rest of Ireland by poor access inextricably linked to its character – deriving livelihoods across the Antrim Plateau, this hidden region offers both from its resources and helping to shape its special residents and visitors an exceptional landscape and a features. The largest town, Ballycastle to the north, is an place of tranquillity. Each glen has its own personality, important centre for commerce, while the villages along a result of its individual combination of rocks and soils, the coast, such as Cushendall, Carnlough and Glenarm are pattern of erosion over thousands of years, and the long old fishing communities. history of its inhabitants. The Antrim Coast and Glens area is changing – old The Antrim Plateau is the high ground of the region. It farmhouses, barns and other historic features are is a huge block of volcanic basalt which overlays older disappearing from the landscape, wildlife habitats are rocks such as limestones and sandstones. The plateau threatened, house prices are increasing rapidly and new was cut by glaciers during the last ice age into a series of development is altering the character of settlements. picturesque glens running east and north east to the sea. Producing a Management Plan for the AONB is an This erosion has exposed rocks with contrasting colours – important step in recognising what is valued in the area, red sandstone, white limestone, black basalt and grey clays devising objectives for the future and finding mechanisms – each with its own particular type of vegetation cover. to make sure that change helps to maintain the intrinsic character of the countryside. this plan. 3 Management Plan 2008 - 2018 The character of the Antrim Coast and Glens landscape Rathlin Island The character of the Antrim Coast and Glens AONB is described in the Landscape Character Assessment (LCA) of Northern Ireland, produced by the Department of Environment1. The LCA describes 130 different character areas, and 11 of these fall wholly or largely within the AONB Fair Head boundary. The descriptions categorise and describe the AONB’s distinctive landscape patterns. Four other character areas – Dervock Farmlands, Ballymena Farmland, Tardree Upland Ballycastle Glens Pasture and Tardree and Six Mile Water Slopes – have small portions within the AONB boundary but have relatively little impact on the overall AONB character. The boundaries of the character areas were chosen through field survey. Sometimes they follow precise visual edges but more usually they represent a transition Moyle Glens from one type to the next. By identifying the Moyle features that make each area special, the assessment Moorlands can help to protect the landscape from damage and Forest caused by new land uses and development. Garron Plateau Larne Glens Central Ballymena Glens Larne Coast Larne Basalt Moorland Larne Ridgeland 1 Northern Ireland Landscape Character Assessment, Environment and Heritage 4 Service Research and Development Series No 99/6, ERM, 1999 The character of the Antrim Coast and Glens landscape The character of the Antrim Coast and Glens landscape The Landscape Character Areas Rathlin Island n High plateau landscape with distinctive rugged coast, stepped profile and rocky knolls n Exposed sheep-grazed landscape of windswept trees and broken walls n Rural landscape with main settlement around Church Bay n Long views from hills across the coast Ballycastle Glens n Scenic valleys and attractive rocky rivers surrounded by smooth rounded hills n Undulating glen slopes supporting rough and improved pastures bounded by hedgerows with gorse Rathllin Island EHS n Roads following glen sides, linking traditional white farmsteads and newer large farm buildings n Coastal town of Ballycastle within a sheltered bay n Historic remains including mottes, crosses, raths and standing stones Fair Head n Narrow coastal strip on the northern slopes of the Antrim Plateau n Dramatic cliffs with igneous intrusions giving rise to prominent headlands and sheltered bays n Small scale rough pastures and rocky Fairhead RKE moorland clinging to the steep coastal edge n Degraded round stone walls and derelict stone farmhouses n Important historic features on Fair Head n Coastal road winding along the cliff edge, with seaward views to Kintyre and the Scottish islands 5 Management Plan 2008 - 2018 Moyle Moorlands and Forests n Large scale, open and smooth moorlands dissected by small rocky burns n Rough grazing of unimproved grassland and heather with areas of blanket bog n Prominent conifer plantations on lower hillslopes n Exposed landscape