About Cranny Falls
Cranny Falls is a waterfall situated inland from the coastal town of Carnlough in the scenic Antrim Coast of Northern Ireland.
I tend to think of it as a sort of community waterfall because its trail started from a community centre, and it seemed like one of those public spaces that locals get to enjoy at will.
Even the trail involved going between open farm pastures while also skirting past some backyards of suburban homes.
As for the waterfall itself, there’s no official height figure from what I could tell, but it looked to be around 15-20m tall.
Most of the trail to get to the waterfall had lots of development in terms of farm pastures and suburban homes as well as relics of an old quarry operation.
It wasn’t until we got to the waterfall itself at the end of the hike that we started to see more forested terrain (as one might expect for visiting a waterfall like this).
As for accessing the Cranny Falls, we first started from a large car park that also doubles as a car park for the Carnlough Community Centre (see directions below).
From there, a trail went past some large rocks (placed there to prevent people from trying to drive on this path) and onto a straight shot 1km stretch.
This straight path was part of the Old Mineral Railway Path or “hurry”, which was built around 1853 primarily to export limestone to Scotland and England.
These days, this path skirts behind sleepy suburban backyards while mostly dominated by open farmlands with some sporadic tree cover.
At the end of the “hurry”, there’s some signage with a map describing this trail while the path joined up with an unpaved road.
I followed this road past a circular walk and towards the single-lane Waterfall Road, where the actual Cranny Falls Trail started from.
Noting the road passing before the Cranny Falls Trail, I did consider driving here to bypass the whole “hurry” section, but the reality was that there’s no sanctioned parking around this trailhead.
Moreover, the single-lane road seemed to be more of a locals-only route, and I’m sure they wouldn’t appreciate tourists trying to clog up this road in an effort to cut down the hiking.
The more I think about it, the signage for the Cranny Falls specifically pointed to the community centre car park and not for the Waterfall Road shortcut.
Anyways, the final 800m of the trail went along a narrower path skirting by some sheep pastures as the path started to skirt the Carnlough River.
The valley narrowed the further the trail went, and it ultimately went past a locked gate that I was able to go around before the path followed a boardwalk that ultimately dead-ended before the Cranny Falls.
Once at the bridge over the Carnlough River, I was pretty much looking against the late afternoon sun (when it wasn’t hiding behind clouds), which made me wonder if this was more of a morning waterfall on a sunny day.
In any case, I went back the way I came, and I wound up spending about 90 minutes away from the car.
Authorities
Cranny Falls is in the town of Carnlough in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. It is administered by the Mid and East Antrim Corough Council. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting the Antrim Glens Tourism website.
Cranny Falls reside in the coastal town of Carnlough on the Antrim Coast of Northern Ireland.
There are various ways to get to the town of Carnlough (whether by scenic route or inland route, or coming from the north or from the south).
So to keep the driving directions simple, I’ll just punt you to a GPS app (e.g. GoogleMaps) to navigate from wherever you are to the town of Carnlough.
The nearest towns that would be of interest to tourists to Carnlough are Cushendall, Larne, Ballymena, and Ballycastle.
Once in the town of Carnlough, the A42 Road cuts right through the coastal town, and you’ll want to signs for Cranny Falls, which will ultimately direct you towards the town’s community centre car park.
The signed turnoff (Havelock Place) is about 3/4-mile north of the A42 turnoff for Ballymena Road, and it’s the first turnoff to the right when heading south into the town centre of Carnlough.
Note that if you get to the stone archway by the Londonderry Arms Hotel as you head south, then you missed this signed turnoff at Havelock Place.
For context, Carnlough is about 10 miles (under 30 minutes drive) south of Cushendall, about 13 miles (under 30 minutes drive) northwest of Larne, about 16 miles (under 30 minutes drive) northeast of Ballymena, about 27 miles (under an hour drive) southeast of Ballycastle, about 44 miles (about an hour drive) southeast of Bushmills, about 34 miles (under an hour drive) north of Belfast, about 45 miles (about an hour drive) southeast of Portrush, about 41 miles (about an hour drive) east of Coleraine, about 69 miles (about 90 minutes drive) east of Londonderry, about 174km (about 2.5 hours drive) northeast of Donegal (Ireland), and 220km (2.5 hours drive) north of Dublin (Ireland).
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Downstream to upstream sweep from the bridge fronting the waterfall
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