Article Summary
What this article covers: The closure of Carnfunnock Country Park near Larne, what is still accessible during the works, the estate history behind the site, and what to do nearby.
Who this is for: Families and day-trippers on the Antrim Coast Road, ferry passengers landing at Larne, and anyone who needs to know whether to change plans.
Key takeaway: Carnfunnock Country Park is closed for a £6.1m redevelopment, but the walking trails remain open with parking and toilets at Drains Bay. The coast walk is still on. The play park, visitor centre and caravan site are not.
Expert insight: “I have stood at that gate on the Coast Road and watched a car full of disappointed children turn around. It happens because every listing online still describes a park that isn’t open. Carnfunnock will be worth the wait, the maze and the walled garden are not going anywhere. Until then the trail from Drains Bay gives you the same view across to Scotland, and it costs nothing.” , Ciaran Connolly, Founder of ConnollyCove
Quick facts:
- Carnfunnock Country Park covers 191 hectares between Drains Bay and Ballygally, on the A2 Antrim Coast Road, 3.5 miles north of Larne
- The park closed in July 2025 for a £6.1m redevelopment funded by the UK Government, covering a new visitor centre, an accessible play park, a bike park and a maze viewing platform
- Walking trails stay open during the works, with parking and toilets at Drains Bay and further parking at Carnfunnock Bay
Table of Contents
Carnfunnock Country Park sits on the Antrim Coast Road three and a half miles north of Larne, and at the time of writing you cannot get into most of it. The park closed in July 2025 for a rebuild, and the car park, visitor centre, play park and caravan site are all shut while the work goes on. The walking trails are still open. Parking and toilets are down at Drains Bay.
That one fact is missing from nearly every listing for this place, which is why families still pull in at the main entrance and find it closed. This guide sets out what is accessible now, what is being built, and what the estate history actually is. The story of who owned this land is more interesting than the facilities list ever was.
If you are planning a wider run along the coast, our complete guide to County Antrim covers the route from Larne up to the Causeway. ConnollyCove is an Ireland-based travel and culture platform, and this corner of the Antrim coast is a stretch we return to often. It rewards a slower pace than most itineraries allow.
Is Carnfunnock Country Park Open?
No. Carnfunnock Country Park is closed for redevelopment, and has been since July 2025. Mid and East Antrim Borough Council confirms that all facilities, including the car park, visitor centre, play park and caravan park, are shut for the duration of the works.
The walking trails are the exception. They remain open, with parking and toilets provided at Drains Bay and additional parking at Carnfunnock Bay. If you want the woodland and the coastal views, you can still have them. What you cannot have is the maze, the walled garden, the playground, a coffee, or a pitch for the night.
The work is a £6.1m project funded by the UK Government, covering a new visitor centre, a rebuilt play park, a bike park and upgraded paths and parking. There is more on what is being built further down.
The Family Fun Zone, the privately run operation with the miniature railway and the mini golf, is a separate business inside the park. It has announced that it will not open during 2026 and is planning to return in spring 2027.
| What you want | Status right now |
|---|---|
| Walking trails | Open |
| Parking and toilets | At Drains Bay, plus parking at Carnfunnock Bay |
| Main car park, visitor centre, café | Closed |
| Play park and maze | Closed |
| Caravan park and campsite | Closed |
| Family Fun Zone | Closed for 2026, returning spring 2027 |
| Cost | Trail access is free |
Before you travel, check the council’s Carnfunnock redevelopment page for the current position. Construction dates move, and this is the only source that gets updated when they do.
Carnfunnock Country Park, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Filmed by ConnollyCove before the redevelopment works began.
Getting There and Where to Park
Carnfunnock Country Park is on the A2 Antrim Coast Road between Drains Bay and Ballygally, three and a half miles north of Larne town and around 20 miles from Belfast. During the closure, aim for the Drains Bay parking rather than the main park entrance.
From Larne: follow the Coast Road (A2) north through Drains Bay. The park entrance is about half a mile further on the left, but the trail parking comes first at Drains Bay.
From Belfast: take the M2 north, then the A8 towards Larne. At Larne, stay on for the harbour rather than the town centre, then pick up Circular Road and the A2 signed for the Antrim Coastal Route. It is roughly 26 miles and takes about 40 minutes in normal traffic.
From Glenarm or Carnlough: head south on the A2 through Ballygally. The park is about a mile past the village on the right.
Without a car: Translink runs a bus service along the Coast Road between Larne and the glens, with a stop close to the park entrance. Larne itself has rail connections to Belfast and ferry sailings to Scotland, which makes this stretch genuinely reachable without driving. Check current timetables with Translink before you set off, since Coast Road services are less frequent outside summer.
Look for the stone pyramid feature at the main entrance. It marks the site even when the gates are shut.
The Estate Behind the Park
Carnfunnock was a private estate for more than three centuries before it became a public park, and the ownership trail runs through most of the names that shaped Larne. The place name comes first. “Carn” refers to a heap of stones used to mark a boundary, a grave or a navigation point. The second element is generally traced to the Irish feannóg, the hooded or grey crow. A cairn associated with crows would have been a landmark long before anyone drew a boundary around it.
The documented history starts in the Plantation period. Randal MacDonnell, later Earl of Antrim, held land running from Coleraine to Larne under a grant from James I. The Carnfunnock lands appear in a rental deed dated 1 February 1621, between MacDonnell and a member of the Shaw family of Ballygally. The Shaws built Ballygally Castle a mile up the coast in 1625. It is still standing and still in use, which makes it one of the few buildings of its date in Northern Ireland doing the job it was built for.
In 1823 Captain William Agnew took a permanent lease from the Marquis of Donegall covering land at the Lough and the Corran in Larne. His son James Agnew inherited in 1828 and later sold the lands and harbour interests to James Chaine, who is the reason Larne became a port at all. Chaine rebuilt the quays, promoted the town commercially, re-established the Larne to Stranraer passenger service in 1872, and started a transatlantic route linking Glasgow, Larne and New York in 1873.
If the name sounds familiar, that is because the round memorial tower at the mouth of Larne Lough was raised in his honour. It is still the first thing you see sailing in. Walking the Carnfunnock trails and then driving down to look at the Chaine tower ties the whole story together in about twenty minutes.
The Dixon family held the estate into the twentieth century. Lady Dixon agreed to sell the Carnfunnock lands to Larne Borough Council in August 1956, and the council took possession in early 1957. The walled garden came with it, and it is older than the park by more than a century. It began as a kitchen garden serving the estate.
From Estate to Country Park
The transformation began in 1981, when Larne Borough Council published a master plan to turn the land into a visitor attraction. The maze, cut in the outline of Northern Ireland, was in place by 1985. The visitor centre opened in 1986, and work on restoring the walled garden started in January 1988. The site was formally opened as a country park by the Duchess of Kent in July 1990. An activity centre followed in 1993 and a nine-hole par three golf course in 1995.
Larne Borough Council no longer exists. It was absorbed into Mid and East Antrim Borough Council in 2015, and that is the body running the current redevelopment.
Two original estate features survive and are worth finding on the trails: the ice house and the lime kilns. Neither is signposted the way the maze is, and neither appears in most guides to the park, which tend to stop at the playground. The walled garden, when it reopens, holds a set of sundials and carved wooden sculptures. Its brick walls create a sheltered microclimate warm enough for planting that would struggle out on the exposed coast.
What the Park Will Look Like When It Reopens
The core of Carnfunnock Country Park is not changing. The maze, the walled garden, the waymarked woodland walks, the orienteering course and the coastal views across to Scotland are all staying. What is changing is the built infrastructure around them.
The new visitor centre is designed to Passivhaus standards, with a shop, a café and function space. The adventure play park is being rebuilt with fully accessible equipment. The bike park is new: a pump track and a jump trail aimed at older children and adults, which gives the site something it has never had. A raised platform over the maze restores a feature that existed before.
The practical upshot is that Carnfunnock should come back as a stronger half-day stop than it was. The old visitor centre had aged badly and the caravan park drew consistent criticism. If you need a pitch on this coast in the meantime, our guide to holiday parks in Northern Ireland covers alternatives that are open.
Things to Do Near Larne While the Park Is Closed
Larne works better as a base than its reputation suggests, and almost everything worth seeing sits within twenty minutes of the harbour. Travellers exploring this region tend to drive straight through towards the Giant’s Causeway, which means the coast immediately north and south of the town stays quiet even in August.
