About the lough shore
Lough Neagh is the fact that shapes everything here. It covers around 150 square miles, which makes it the largest lake by area in Britain or Ireland, and five of Northern Ireland's six counties touch its shore. Stand at Antrim and you cannot see the far side. It behaves less like a lake than a small inland sea, complete with its own weather and its own fishing fleet.
Legend gives it a tidier origin. The story goes that the giant Finn McCool, in a temper, tore a clod of earth from the ground and hurled it at a rival across the sea. The hole filled with water and became Lough Neagh; the clod fell short and became the Isle of Man. It is a good story, and the six-metre Protector of the Lough standing outside The Gateway keeps it in view.
Antrim's own shore has been a working one for a long time — eel fishing, sand dredging, boats in and out — and the Six Mile Water runs down through the town to meet the lough right here. The river path is the old link between the shore and the Clotworthy family's demesne at Antrim Castle, which is why you can still walk from the jetty to the castle gardens in a straight-ish line.
The modern park pulled the strands together: a marina and slipway for the boats, a caravan park for the visitors, a play park for the families, and The Gateway — an exhibition centre, a restaurant and the base for Lough Neagh Rescue, the volunteer crews who launch onto this water when something goes wrong on it. The Joyce, the vessel preserved outside, has been on the lough since 1943.
It is a free day out that sits on top of one of the great natural features of these islands. Go for the sunset if you can — the light coming back off that much water is something people travel for.