Qualla: Antrim Hills https://qualla.com/antrim-hills en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:13 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/9/antrim-hills-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Antrim Hills https://qualla.com/antrim-hills Antrim Hills: Introduction https://qualla.com/antrim-hills/ Photo credit Sparks1976, CC BY-SA 4.0. Sixty million years ago, a long crack opened in the crust beneath what is now northeastern Ireland and basalt poured out in sheet after sheet. The hills you see today are what remained when the lava cooled, weathered, and was shaved by ice. The Antrim Hills are the same rock as the Giant's Causeway, only with the columns hidden under a green skin of peat and heather. Their rounded summits and high tablelands run from Ballycastle in the north to Larne and Ballyclare in the south, holding up the eastern flank of County Antrim like a long, low rampart facing Scotland.

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Image: Sparks1976 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/9/antrim-hills-wp/gcg9-antrim-hills-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Antrim Hills: A Landscape Made by Ice https://qualla.com/antrim-hills/ Photo credit Sparks1976, CC BY-SA 4.0. The basalt is the bedrock, but it was the glaciers of the last Ice Age that gave the Antrim Hills their distinctive shape. Where rivers and rain have rough, jagged work, ice does something gentler. It planes the tops flat, rounds the shoulders, and scoops out the valleys with bro...

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Image: Sparks1976 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/9/antrim-hills-wp/gcg9-antrim-hills-a-landscape-made-by-ice.mp3 0:06 2 full Antrim Hills: Trostan and the High Twelve https://qualla.com/antrim-hills/ Photo credit Sparks1976, CC BY-SA 4.0. Trostan is the king of the range at 551 metres, the highest point in County Antrim and one of only four mountains in the Antrim Hills that qualify as Arderins, the Irish category for peaks above 500 metres with significant prominence. From its top on a clear day, the whole of the...

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Image: Sparks1976 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/9/antrim-hills-wp/gcg9-antrim-hills-trostan-and-the-high-twelve.mp3 0:06 3 full Antrim Hills: Moor, Bog, and Sky https://qualla.com/antrim-hills/ Photo credit Sparks1976, CC BY-SA 4.0. Most of the range is moorland and blanket bog, a habitat that looks empty until you stop walking and listen. The peat under your boots has been growing for thousands of years, one millimetre at a time, soaking up rain and locking away carbon. Heather purples the hills in late sum...

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Image: Sparks1976 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/9/antrim-hills-wp/gcg9-antrim-hills-moor-bog-and-sky.mp3 0:06 4 full Antrim Hills: Foxes, Falcons, and Pine Martens https://qualla.com/antrim-hills/ Photo credit Sparks1976, CC BY-SA 4.0. The wildlife of the Antrim Hills runs the full vertical scale. On the ground, red foxes hunt the moorland edges, pine martens have been quietly returning to the woods on the lower slopes, and red squirrels still hold on in the conifer plantations where their grey cousins have not...

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Image: Sparks1976 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/9/antrim-hills-wp/gcg9-antrim-hills-foxes-falcons-and-pine-martens.mp3 0:06 5 full Antrim Hills: An Outstanding Beauty https://qualla.com/antrim-hills/ Photo credit Sparks1976, CC BY-SA 4.0. The range is officially designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the same protected status used across the United Kingdom to safeguard landscapes that fall just short of national park designation but are too important to leave unguarded. Walkers, climbers, and drivers of...

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Image: Sparks1976 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/9/antrim-hills-wp/gcg9-antrim-hills-an-outstanding-beauty.mp3 0:06 6 full