About Dunseverick Waterfall
Dunseverick Waterfall (Dún Sobhairce in Irish) is a small waterfall (said to be 5-10m tall) that spills right into the Atlantic Ocean off the Causeway Coast in Northern Ireland.
This would otherwise be an unassuming and unknown waterfall if it wasn’t near a couple of notable attractions – namely the Dunseverick Castle and the Giant’s Causeway.
In fact, I’d argue that this waterfall is probably the closest legitimate one near the eccentric-yet-well-visited coastal basalt formation.
As you can see from the photo above, which was taken during our mid-July 2024 trip, its flow is appreciable though I’ve seen pictures of it swollen in the literature (surely after heavy rain storms).
In any case, visiting the Dunseverick Falls can be done via a short walk and scramble of about 250-300m from the Dunseverick layby (see directions below).
From that lay-by, I merely crossed the Causeway Road into a trail that led right to a locked gate with a stile next to it.
Going up and over the stile, I then followed its trail as it joined the Causeway Coastal Way Trail, which is a longer coastal trail connecting all the attractions along the Antrim Coast.
From where the access trail joined up with the Causeway Coastal Way, I then went left and followed the wider trail towards a bridge, which I knew spanned the stream responsible for the Dunseverick Waterfall.
There were trails of use that deviated from the Causeway Coastal Way leading towards the Dunseverick Waterfall (these paths were well before the footbridge).
Of course, if the scrambling paths are hard to figure out, you could get to the footbridge and then follow the stream downstream to the Dunseverick Falls.
Indeed, once I got off the Causeway Coastal Way, it was pretty much an uneven rocky scramble to try to improve the view of the cascading waterfall.
The Dunseverick Waterfall drops right into the high amplitude oscillations of the North Atlantic swells so swimming here would be a bad idea.
After having my fill of the waterfall, I then scrambled my way back to the Causeway Coastal Way (which can be a bit tricky due to the lack of a defined path) before going back the way I came to where I parked the car by the Causeway Road.
Overall, I spent about 30 minutes away from the car, but this was one of those deals where it could easily be a shorter or longer visit depending on how long you wish to linger.
Authorities
The Dunseverick Waterfall is near the town of Bushmills in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. It is administered by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting the Causeway Coast and Glens website.
The Dunseverick Waterfall resides near the touristy town of Bushmills.
There’s a couple of ways to get from Bushmills to the Dunseverick Falls (both a little over 5 miles drive).
The first route is to drive north on the A2 from Bushmills for about a mile from the roundabout by Market Square joining the A2 with Main Street.
Then, we’d turn left onto the Causeway Road for about 4 miles to a large lay-by opposite the Dunseverick Road.
Note that about 0.8-mile into the Causeway Road is the turnoff leading to the famous Giant’s Causeway.
Anyways, the large lay-by is where we parked the car and started the hike, as this represented the nearest place to park the car to get to the Dunseverick Waterfall.
There’s also parking by the Dunseverick Castle roughly a half-mile to the west of the large lay-by.
Overall, this drive would take about 15 minutes or so.
Similarly, from the roundabout in the town centre of Bushmills, we could also drive the A2/Whitepark Road for about 4.3 miles before turning left onto the other end of Causeway Road.
From there, we’d drive about a half-mile or so to the large lay-by on the left opposite Dunseverick Road.
Again, this drive would also take no more than 15 minutes.
For context, Bushmills is about 6 miles (about 15 minutes drive) east of Portrush, about 9 miles (15 minutes drive) northeast of Coleraine, about 29 miles (over 30 minutes drive) northwest of Ballymena, about 37 miles (under an hour drive) northeast of Londonderry, 58 miles (over an hour drive) northwest of Belfast, about 95km (about 90 minutes drive) northeast of Letterkenny (Ireland), about 136km (about 2 hours drive) northeast of Donegal (Ireland), and 258km (about 3 hours drive) north of Dublin (Ireland).
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Right to left sweep providing a profile view of the bottommost drop of the cascades spilling right into the ocean
Right to left sweep of a less angled view of the tiers of the cascades spilling into the ocean
360 degree sweep before focusing on a direct look at the falls while also noticing the swells in the ocean
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