Article Summary
What this article covers: A practical guide to visiting Valley Park in Newtownabbey, County Antrim, covering the V36 civic park, the Skate 100 skatepark, the 3G pitch, the enclosed dog park, the Saturday parkrun, parking, transport and seasonal timing.
Who this is for: Families and visitors planning a day out in Newtownabbey, skaters and BMX riders looking for Skate 100, dog owners checking where their dog can run off the lead, and travellers exploring County Antrim who want a free stop within twenty minutes of Belfast.
Key takeaway: Valley Park is really four sites sharing one name, and knowing which entrance to use, Church Road or O’Neill Road, decides whether you end up at the skatepark or the dog park.
Expert insight:
“The first time I walked up from the Church Road car park past the duck pond, I realised most people arrive for one thing and leave having found three. You come for the skatepark and end up watching the swans, or you come for the parkrun and discover there’s a fenced dog park on the O’Neill Road side. That mix is what makes the Valley work as a morning out rather than a quick stop.” , Ciaran Connolly, Founder of ConnollyCove
Quick facts:
- Valley Park and V36 sit at Church Road, Newtownabbey, BT36 7LJ, with a second car park on O’Neill Road; admission and parking are free.
- The V36 civic linear park is open 6 am to 10 pm daily, and Skate 100 runs dawn to dusk with floodlights switching off at 10 pm.
- Skate 100 covers roughly 14,000 square feet and is described by Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council as one of the largest skateparks in the UK and Ireland.
Table of Contents
Most people looking up Valley Park in Newtownabbey are not after scenery. They want to know whether the car park is free, what time the skatepark closes, and whether the dog has to stay on the lead. Those answers are currently scattered across four or five separate council and community pages.
This guide pulls them into one place. You will find opening hours for each zone, the difference between Valley Park and V36, what Skate 100 actually offers, how the Saturday parkrun works, and the dog rules laid out without ambiguity.
There is also practical detail on the two entrances, bus and rail options from Belfast, and how to fold a stop here into a wider day around County Antrim.ConnollyCove covers destinations across Northern Ireland and beyond, and this is one of the easier free stops near the city.
What You Need to Know Before Visiting Valley Park
Valley Park is a free, council-run green space in Newtownabbey, County Antrim, roughly six miles north of Belfast city centre, with two car parks, no admission charge and no set closing time for the older parkland. The confusion for first-time visitors comes from the fact that several distinct facilities share the site and each keeps its own hours. Before you set off, it helps to understand the geography, the naming, and what is and is not free.
Where Valley Park Sits in Newtownabbey
The park occupies the valley between Church Road and O’Neill Road on the western edge of Newtownabbey, with the Valley Leisure Centre at its Church Road end. Postcode BT36 7LJ will bring your satnav to the leisure centre and the main car park.
The ground rises steadily from the leisure centre towards the upper meadows, so the lower half is flat and pram-friendly, and the upper half involves a gentle climb. If you are collecting parks in this part of the borough, Hazelbank Park on the Newtownabbey shoreline makes a natural pairing, since one gives you woodland and the other gives you Belfast Lough.
Valley Park and V36: Two Names, One Site
V36 is not a separate park. It is the modern civic development built at the Church Road end of Valley Park, and it contains the adventure play area, the floodlit 3G pitch, the event space and Skate 100. Valley Park is the older, wider green space that surrounds it, including the upper meadows and the walking paths.
Search results treat the two as different places, which is why visitors turn up at one entrance expecting the other. Read them as lower Valley Park equals V36, upper Valley Park equals open parkland. That single distinction resolves most of the confusion, and it explains why the site turns up on lists of free family activities across Northern Ireland under two different names.
Opening Hours Across the Different Zones
Each zone runs to its own schedule, which matters most if you are arriving in winter or late in the evening. The V36 civic linear park opens 6 am to 10 pm every day, after which the gates at Church Road and Longlands Avenue are locked. The wider parkland has no set opening times.
| Zone | Hours | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| V36 civic linear park | 6 am to 10 pm daily | Church Road and Longlands Avenue gates locked outside these hours |
| Adventure play area | 9 am to 9 pm (April to October);9 amm to dusk, 6 pm (November to March) | Seasonal closing |
| Skate 100 | Dawn to dusk | Floodlights switch off at 10 pm |
| Wider parkland | No set opening times | Sports pavilion opens for events only |
| Valley Leisure Centre | Mon to Fri 6 am to 10 pm; Sat and Sun 8 am to 4 pm | Closed 12 and 13 July, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Day |
Winter visits are worth timing carefully, because the play area shuts at dusk from November. That is a similar consideration to planning any of the outdoor options for children around Belfast in the darker months.
What It Costs to Visit
Nothing, for almost everything. Entry is free, both car parks are free, the adventure play area is free, and Skate 100 is free to use on a drop-in basis with no booking and no session fee. The only charges on site are the 3G pitch hire and whatever you spend in the leisure centre café.
That makes it one of the cheaper family outings in the greater Belfast area, in the same bracket as the low-cost days out we gathered for our guide to spending a day in Belfast on a tight budget. Bring your own flask and the whole visit can cost nothing but fuel or a bus fare.
The Main Attractions Across the Park
Four things draw most visitors: the skatepark, the 3G pitch, the play area and the pond. They sit within a few minutes’ walk of one another at the Church Road end, which is why the lower car park fills first on Saturday mornings. Each has its own quirks worth knowing before you arrive, and together they explain why this site punches above its weight compared with other suburban parks. If you are building a fuller itinerary, our round-up of places worth seeing in and around Belfast covers what else fits into the same day.
Skate 100: One of the Largest Skateparks in the UK and Ireland
Skate 100 is a free outdoor concrete skatepark of roughly 14,000 square feet, opened in May 2022 and described by Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council as one of the largest in the UK and Ireland. It is built for skateboards, scooters, inline skates, BMX freestyle bikes and parkour.
The layout includes a ten-foot-deep bowl, ledges, stairs, banks, sharp hips, waterfalls and volcanoes, so it works for beginners and experienced riders on the same visit. Council safety guidance asks users to wear helmets and pads, recommends adult supervision for skaters under ten, and bans electric scooters, hoverboards and e-bikes from the surface.
It is the sort of facility that keeps turning up when we look at how sport shapes local identity, a thread we follow in our profiles of sporting figures from across the island.
The 3G Pitch and Event Space at V36
The full-size floodlit third-generation pitch at V36 is suitable for football, rugby and Gaelic games, and it is the only part of the site that carries a hire fee. Bookings and current pricing go through Valley Leisure Centre directly, and block bookings for clubs are handled the same way.
Because it takes all three codes, the pitch gets heavy evening use from local clubs, so casual visitors should not expect to wander on. The Gaelic configuration uses the full surface rather than the split football pitches, which reflects how central the games remain to community life here; our overview of the Gaelic Athletic Association and its local clubs gives the wider context.
Alongside the pitch sits the civic event space, available for hire by individuals and organisations, which hosts borough events through the year.
The Adventure Play Area and Picnic Spots
The V36 adventure play area is the reason many families come, and it is a genuine step up from a standard swing set. Visitors consistently mention trampolines, multiple slides, climbing frames, bridges and musical play equipment, with the whole area set well back from any road.
A picnic area sits within V36 itself, and the open ground above it gives you space to spread out on a dry day. Toilets are available in the leisure centre, and the council installed additional accessible facilities at V36 specifically to serve visitors with conditions such as Crohn’s disease and colitis.
For families comparing options, Belvoir Park on the south side of the city offers a woodland alternative with a very different feel.
The Duck Pond and Riverside Walks
The duck pond sits between the leisure centre car park and V36, and there is a pedestrian entrance right beside it. Ducks, geese and swans are regulars, and the pond is the main reason people with very young children stop at the lower end rather than climbing higher.
Paths lead away from the pond along the valley floor and up through the parkland, all tarmac at the lower levels and rougher underfoot as you climb. This is not a fishing lake, ake and there is no boating; it is a small ornamental pond with a path around it. If you are after open water in County Antrim, Lough Neagh and its shoreline trails are a short drive west and offer the scale this pond does not.
Walking, Running and Bringing the Dog
Valley Park works best as an exercise space, and three groups use most of it: parkrunners on Saturday mornings, dog owners throughout the week, and walkers linking it into longer routes across the borough. The rules differ sharply between zones, particularly for dogs, so this section sets out exactly what applies where. Anyone planning walks across the region will find more routes in our seasonal guide to walking Northern Ireland in autumn.
Valley parkrun on Saturday Mornings
Valley parkrun is a free, timed 5km event starting every Saturday at 9:30 am from Valley Leisure Centre, 40 Church Road. It is a two-lap course run entirely on tarmac paths, measured with a professional wheel, and organised by volunteers.
Regulars describe the course as not flat but friendly, with the finish passing through the Peace Gate sculpture installed during the park’s refurbishment. You need to register once with parkrun UK before your first event and bring a scannable barcode; no barcode means no result.
Paths are shared with walkers and dog owners, so runners are asked to give way, and nobody minds. Anyone who enjoys the climb will find harder ground in the upland walking routes across Northern Ireland.
The Enclosed Dog Park on O’Neill Road
The enclosed dog exercise park opened at the O’Neill Road end in October 2019, and it is fully fenced with a double-gated entrance. Inside,e there are separate zones for larger and smaller dogs, agility obstacles, a water point and seating for owners.
This is the only part of the site where dogs can run off the lead in a secure enclosure, and free parking sits alongside it on O’Neill Road. Owners are expected to clean up after their dogs, and council guidance is displayed at the gates. If you are mapping out dog-friendly green space nearer the city, Drumglass Park off the Lisburn Road is a smaller but useful option.
Where Dogs Can and Cannot Go
The dog rules are the single most misunderstood thing about this site, and getting them wrong means walking a long way to the wrong gate. Under the borough’s Dog Control Orders, three separate rules apply across the site.
| Area | Dog policy |
|---|---|
| Enclosed dog park (O’Neill Road) | Off lead, fully fenced, double-gated |
| Upper end of Valley Park | Off lead permitted |
| V36 civic park and surrounding paths | On lead at all times |
| Adventure play area | Dogs not permitted |
| 3G pitch | Dogs not permitted |
In short: lead on for the whole V36 area, lead off in the upper park and inside the enclosure, and no dogs at all near the play equipment or the synthetic pitch. Larger forest sites such as Tollymore Forest Park in County Down operate under different rules again, so it is worth checking each site rather than assuming.
Linking Up With the Newtownabbey Way
The Newtownabbey Way is the borough’s flagship walking and cycling greenway, forming part of National Cycle Network Route 93, and it runs from Global Point at Corr’s Corner down to the shores of Belfast Lough at Whiteabbey. It passes through Mossley Mill, Three Mile Water Park, Monkstown Wood and Glen Park.
The Way does not run through Valley Park itself, and it is worth being clear about that, since several online guides suggest otherwise. What it does offer is a second, longer option a short distance north, reachable by road or bus, if the park’s own paths are not enough for the day.
Combining the two makes a decent half-day on foot, and it fits the pattern of quieter routes we cover in our guide to driving Northern Ireland’s less obvious roads.
“What strikes me about V36 is how ordinary it feels now. A civic park funded to bring communities onto the same ground has turned into the place where people walk the dog and take the kids after school. That is what shared space in Northern Ireland is supposed to do: stop being a project and start being somewhere you go on a Tuesday.” , Ciaran Connolly, Founder of ConnollyCove
Getting There, Parking and Access
The site has two vehicle entrances, and which one you choose determines your whole visit. Church Road serves V36, Skate 100, the play area and the leisure centre; O’Neill Road serves the dog park and the upper walking ground. Both car parks are free, ee and neither requires booking. Public transport works, but it takes a little planning, and access varies between the paved lower section and the rougher upper meadows. Visitors combining this with a city trip often pair it with somewhere like the Common Market in Belfast for lunch afterwards.
Driving In: Church Road or O’Neill Road
The main vehicle entrance is on Church Road, opposite the KFC, and it leads to a dedicated car park built as part of the V36 development. A vehicle barrier stops cars from going any further into the park, keeping the interior pedestrian-only apart from emergency access.
Additional free parking sits at the front of Valley Leisure Centre, and a third car park is on O’Neill Road. Use Church Road for the skatepark, the pitch and the play area. Use O’Neill Road for the enclosed dog park and the upper trails. Getting this wrong adds a fifteen-minute uphill walk.
Parking is rarely the headache it becomes at busier city sites such as St George’s Market on a weekend morning.
Arriving by Bus or Train From Belfast
Translink Metro Corridor 2 services run from Belfast city centre out towards Rathcoole and Monkstown, with stops within walking distance of Church Road, and the journey takes roughly twenty to twenty-five minutes.
By rail, Whiteabbey is the nearest station on the Belfast to Larne line, and it is about a twenty-five-minute walk uphill to the leisure centre via O’Neill Road and Church Road. Check current timetables with Translink before travelling, since Metro route numbers and frequencies change.
Walking in from the north Belfast side is possible but long, and the last stretch is all uphill. Readers exploring that part of the city on foot will find related ground in our piece on the Tiger’s Bay area and its surroundings.
Accessibility, Toilets and the Leisure Centre Café
The lower section of the park is largely flat and surfaced, which makes it manageable with a pram or wheelchair, and both car parks are open-air surface parking with free access for all users. Accessibility declines as you climb towards the upper meadows, where surfaces become uneven.
Toilets are inside Valley Leisure Centre during opening hours, with additional accessible facilities installed at V36. The centre also runs a café, which doubles as the post-parkrun meeting point on Saturdays and as somewhere to sit out a shower.
It is a modest setup rather than a destination in itself, unlike the places we picked for our guide to coffee spots worth a detour in Belfast.
On Foot From Rathcoole, Longlands and Glengormley
Locals mostly walk in. There is a pedestrian entrance from Longlands Avenue, another from the leisure centre car park beside the duck pond, and a path from the upper Valley Park down past the grass pitches into V36.
That gives residents of Rathcoole, Longlands and the surrounding streets direct access without touching a car park, and it is part of why the site functions as everyday space rather than a weekend attraction. The Longlands and Church Road gates lock outside the 6 am to 10 pm window, so late walkers should plan their exit.
Newtownabbey grew as a cluster of villages absorbed into one urban area during the twentieth century, a pattern that shaped much of the region; our look at Belfast’s Victorian building stock traces the earlier stage of the same expansion.
Seasons, Weather and What Else Is Nearby
The park is open all year, and every zone stays usable in most conditions, but the experience shifts noticeably between summer and winter, and the nearby options change with it. This section covers when to come, what the weather does to the ground, and how to build the park into a longer County Antrim route. Visitor patterns across the region follow predictable seasonal peaks, as the published tourism figures for Northern Ireland show.
Choosing the Right Time of Year
May to September gives the best conditions for the walking paths, the pond and the upper meadows, with long evenings and drier ground. The play area also runs its longer hours, 9 am to 9 pm, through this window.
October to March is when the floodlights matter. Skate 100 and the 3G pitch stay usable into the evening because the lights run until 10 pm, so winter is genuinely the skatepark’s season rather than a write-off. The play area, by contrast, closes at dusk o6 pmpm.
Late October brings the borough’s seasonal events programme, and our round-up of Halloween activities across Belfast covers what else runs nearby at that point in the year.
What the Weather Actually Does to the Park
The tarmac paths drain reasonably well, but parkrun’s own course notes warn that sections collect mud, leaves and puddles after rain, and the same applies to anyone walking the lower loop. The upper grass ground turns heavy quickly in winter.
Wind matters more than rain here. The valley funnels it, and the exposed upper meadows are noticeably colder than the sheltered ground near the pond. Layers are more useful than a heavy coat. If a downpour ends the visit early, the leisure centre café is the obvious retreat, or head into the city for one of the longer brunch sittings around Belfast.
Half-Day Trips Within Twenty Minutes
Several substantial attractions sit within a short drive. Belfast Zoo is on the Cave Hill slopes to the south, covering 55 acres with more than 100 species. Belfast Castle and Cave Hill Country Park sit immediately beside it, with the Cave Hill trail running roughly 4.5 miles past the caves to McArt’s Fort.
Carrickfergus Castle, the Anglo-Norman fortress begun by John de Courcy in the late twelfth century, is around twenty minutes north-east on the coast road. Any of these turns a park visit into a full day. Heading north instead puts you into the Glens of Antrim and their nine valleys within the hour.
Building Valley Park Into a Wider County Antrim Route
For travellers driving the Causeway Coastal Route, the Valley is a useful first or last stop rather than a destination in its own right. It gives you free parking, toilets, a coffee and somewhere to let children or dogs burn off energy before or after a long coastal drive.
Heading north from here takes you through Carrickfergus and Larne towards the Glens, and eventually to the north coast. That northern end is where the mythology sits, and our account of the Finn McCool legend and the Giant’s Causeway covers the stories attached to it. Treated that way, an hour at the Valley costs you nothing and improves the rest of the day.
Conclusion
The site rewards a little planning. Pick Church Road for Skate 100, the 3G pitch and the play area, or O’Neill Road for the enclosed dog park and the upper walks. Check the seasonal hours before setting off in winter, because the play area shuts at dusk. Everything except pitch hire is free.
For more County Antrim ideas, browse our Northern Ireland activity guides.
You can also watch the destination films on the ConnollyCove YouTube channel.
FAQs
What is the difference between Valley Park and V36 in Newtownabbey?
Valley Park is the wider green space; V36 is the modern civic development inside it at the Church Road end. V36 contains the adventure play area, the floodlit 3G pitch, the event space and Skate 100. The upper parkland, walking paths and off-lead area belong to Valley Park proper.
Are dogs allowed at Valley Park and V36?
Yes, with three different rules. Dogs must stay on the lead throughout V36 and its paths, may run off the lead at the upper end of Valley Park, and can use the fully enclosed dog park off O’Neill Road. Dogs are not permitted in the adventure play area or on the 3G pitch.
How much does it cost to use Skate 100?
Nothing. Skate 100 is free to use on a drop-in basis with no booking required, for skateboards, scooters, inline skates, BMX freestyle bikes and parkour. It opens from dawn to dusk, with the floodlights switching off at 10 pm.
Where do I park for Valley Park and V36?
Both car parks are free. Use the Church Road car park, opposite the KFC, for V36, Skate 100, the play area and Valley Leisure Centre. Use the O’Neill Road car park for the enclosed dog park and the upper woodland walks.
What time does the Valley parkrun start?
Every Saturday at 9:30 am, from Valley Leisure Centre at 40 Church Road, BT36 7LJ. It is a free, volunteer-run 5km on tarmac paths. Register once with parkrun UK beforehand and bring a scannable barcode, or your time will not be recorded.
