Hazelbank Park & the Coronation Garden (Newtownabbey)

A crowned pavilion, a play park and a lough

Start at the top with the Coronation Garden, because there is nothing else quite like it in the country. Diarmuid Gavin built it on the site of a disused bowling green as part of a £1.1 million upgrade to the park: three floors of turquoise ironwork, gilded detail, a crown on top, a spiral of clipped topiary cones and planting around it, and mechanised trees and bushes that spin and 'dance' every quarter of an hour. King Charles III and Queen Camilla opened it on 24 May 2023. It is free to walk into, and it is the kind of thing children remember for years.

Then walk down to the water. The rest of Hazelbank is a proper lough-shore park: mature trees left over from the old estate gardens and orchard, open grass, picnic areas, a children's play park, outdoor gym equipment and a stone viewing terrace with benches looking straight out over Belfast Lough to the County Down shore. On a clear day you can pick out Belfast, Carrickfergus, Bangor and the North Down coast from one spot.

The shore path is the other reason to come. It is flat, surfaced and traffic-free, and it runs south along the lough on the National Cycle Network — you can walk or cycle from here through Whiteabbey and on into Belfast without meeting a car. In the other direction it links towards Jordanstown Loughshore Park.

Beside the park is Gideon's Green, which gives onto Whitehouse Lagoon — one of the better birdwatching spots on this side of the lough, especially when the tide drops and the mudflats come up. In summer children paddle at the shore and families spread out on the grass. In winter the lough goes grey and vast and the garden lights come on, and it is a completely different and equally good place.

Free park and parking The Coronation Garden Play park and outdoor gym Traffic-free shore path to Belfast Birdwatching at Whitehouse Lagoon Paddling and picnics on the shore

Before you go:

The park opens daily from 8am, with a seasonal closing time. The Coronation Garden's moving planting performs roughly every 15 minutes — worth waiting for. There is no café in the park; Whiteabbey village is a short walk away for coffee and shops.

What to wear & bring

🧥A coatOpen shore on Belfast Lough. Wrapped up, standing at the wall watching the weather come across is the best of it.

🚲BikesThe shore path is flat, surfaced and traffic-free, and joins the National Cycle Network towards Belfast.

🧺A picnicPicnic areas, grass and one of the best views on the lough. No café on site.

🔭BinocularsWhitehouse Lagoon at Gideon's Green is a real birdwatching spot, especially on a dropping tide.

What's on at the park

The Coronation Garden is the standing attraction and it performs on its own schedule — the mechanised trees and bushes move roughly every fifteen minutes, and the garden is lit after dark, which makes an evening visit a genuinely different experience from a daytime one.

The council programmes events through the park and along the Newtownabbey shore across the season. Check the Antrim & Newtownabbey listings before you travel if you want to land on something.

Everything before you go

Cost

Free, including parking

Opening

Open daily from 8am; closing time varies with the season

Best for ages

All ages — the garden works for everyone, the play park suits younger children

What's there

The Coronation Garden (Diarmuid Gavin, opened 2023), children's play park, outdoor gym, picnic areas, mature parkland from the old estate, a stone viewing terrace over Belfast Lough, the shore path on the National Cycle Network, and Gideon's Green with Whitehouse Lagoon birdwatching

Toilets

Public toilets on site

Parking

Free parking at the park

Dogs

A popular dog-walking park — keep them under control and out of the play area

Accessibility

Traffic-free surfaced paths suitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs

How long to allow

One to three hours

Food

No café in the park; Whiteabbey village has cafés and shops a short walk away

The Coronation Garden

Designed by Diarmuid Gavin on the site of a disused bowling green, part of a £1.1m park upgrade. A three-floor pavilion topped by a crown, with planting that spins and 'dances' roughly every 15 minutes. Opened by King Charles III and Queen Camilla on 24 May 2023

Getting there

On the Shore Road (A2) at Newtownabbey, between Whiteabbey and Jordanstown, a few miles north of Belfast

Address

Hazelbank Park, Shore Road, Newtownabbey BT37 0PY

Phone

0300 123 4568

Questions

Before you go

Is it free?

Yes — the park, the Coronation Garden and the car park are all free.

What is the Coronation Garden?

A garden built on the site of a disused bowling green to a design by Diarmuid Gavin, with a three-floor turquoise ironwork pavilion topped by a gilded crown, ornate gates, and planting that spins and 'dances' roughly every 15 minutes. King Charles III and Queen Camilla opened it on 24 May 2023.

What are the opening hours?

The park opens daily from 8am. The closing time changes with the season, so check before an evening visit.

Is there a play park?

Yes, along with outdoor gym equipment for the adults and plenty of open grass.

Are there toilets and a café?

There are public toilets on site. There is no café in the park, but Whiteabbey village is a short walk away with cafés and shops.

Is it good for a buggy or a wheelchair?

Yes — the paths are surfaced and traffic-free, which is a large part of why the park is so well used.

Can we walk to Belfast from here?

You can. The shore path runs south along the lough on the National Cycle Network, through Whiteabbey and on into the city, with no traffic to cross.

What is Gideon's Green?

The area of the park beside Whitehouse Lagoon, and one of the better birdwatching spots on this shore. Mature trees survive there from the old estate's formal gardens and orchard.

Getting there

Hazelbank Park is on the Shore Road (A2) at Newtownabbey, between Whiteabbey and Jordanstown and a few miles north of Belfast. There is free parking at the park, with the Coronation Garden, the play park and the shore path all a short walk from it. The traffic-free shore path links the park with Whiteabbey village in one direction and Jordanstown Loughshore Park in the other.

Official website Directions on Google Maps See it on our map

Phone: 0300 123 4568

Nearby

Make more of the day

Jordanstown Loughshore ParkBig play park, café and beach, along the same shore The Whiteabbey greenwayThe traffic-free path towards Belfast Belfast ZooOn the side of Cave Hill, a short drive south Carrickfergus CastleThe Norman castle up the coast

The story

About the park

Hazelbank was a private estate before it was a park. The house dated from 1796, was enlarged in the 1850s, and was replaced late in the nineteenth century by a larger house with a conservatory. There was a walled garden and an orchard, and the grounds ran down to the lough exactly as the park does now.

Its best-known owner was James Mackie, of Mackie Engineering — the textile-machinery works and foundry on the Springfield Road that was for a long time one of the largest employers in Belfast. The linen trade built a great many of the private demesnes along this coast, and this was one of them.

The house came down in 1972. What survived was the setting: the mature trees from the formal gardens and the orchard, the slope to the water, and the shoreline. The council turned it into a public park, and for decades it did the ordinary, valuable job of being the place local families went on a Sunday.

Then in 2023 it got something extraordinary. As part of a £1.1 million upgrade, the disused bowling green was replaced by the Coronation Garden — Diarmuid Gavin's crowned ironwork pavilion, spiral topiary and mechanised planting — and the King and Queen came to open it on 24 May that year.

The result is an unusual combination: a working local park with a play park, an outdoor gym and a shore path, that also happens to contain one of the most theatrical pieces of garden design on the island. Both halves are free, and you can do them in the same hour.