From the June issue of The Sunday Times Travel Magazine

Leisurely days

THE ANTRIM COAST, UK: Ballygalley to Bushmills (85km)

The itinerary couldn’t be simpler: one day, one road – the marvellous A2, carved between the hills and the shore.

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But don’t expect everything to be so straightforward. Back-country Antrim has a strange, cut-off atmosphere: until the 19th century this was bandit country, while superstition and magic are still part of everyday parlance. Tie a hazel wand to your bumper to guard against fairies… and you’re off!

Spend the morning meandering quietly north past sea-stacks and under rocky archways, stopping only to skim stones on red curls of beach, or to idle on harbour walls wondering if the fishing boats ever go anywhere. Divert briefly inland to Glenariff, if you’ve time, for hedgerows full of wild fuchsia in summer.

A path descends to Ess-na-laragh waterfall, and becomes a labyrinth of timber walkways twisting in and out of the spray. There is Guinness pie for lunch at Mary McBride’s (028 2176 1511) in Cushendun, reputedly Ireland’s tiniest bar; or else hold out for fish and chips at Morton’s on Ballycastle Quay (028 2076 1100). By now you’ll have traversed Fair Head, an eerie tableland where buzzards hover, seals bark and the mythic Watershee wails through the sea mist.

The afternoon is packed with geological thrills along the Causeway Coast: stop at Carrick-a-Rede, where you can pay £4 to teeter across a precarious bridge above a 30m chasm of churning surf. Soon you’ll reach the Giant’s Causeway itself: its 38,000 columns of basalt are formed from volcanic lava or the handiwork of a local ogre, depending on how romantic you’re feeling. After the tasting tour at nearby Bushmills Distillery (028 2073 1521), the latter seems increasingly plausible.

Take your car on the ferry to Larne: from Cairnryan, near Stranraer, it’s an hour (0870 242 4777, www.poirishsea.com; £66 one way); from Fleetwood, near Blackpool, it’s eight (0870 570 7070, www.stenaline.com; £110 one way). Bushmills Inn (028 2073 3000, www.bushmillsinn.com) has doubles from £178, B&B. In Ballintoy, Whitepark House (028 2073 1482, www.whiteparkhouse.com) has doubles from £100, B&B.

THE ATLANTIC HIGHWAY, UK: Fraddon to Bude (122km)

The A30 will get you the length of Cornwall in a flash, but the meandering Atlantic Highway (A39) will quicken your pulse with its white-knuckle twists-&-turns across patchwork fields alongside a sapphire sea.

To do this vintage A-road justice, hire a vintage motor: a 1966 Austin Healey is just the ticket. A clear run gets you, in an hour, from the moody rollers of Watergate Bay, on the outskirts of Newquay, to Merlin-haunted Tintagel. Get up early, though, and make time to stop at Aunt Avices (01208 841895) on the moor at St Kew Highway to fill up on the finest pasties in the country.

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