The National Trust owns and manages around 200 kilometres of coastline in Northern Ireland. This is a high proportion of the total coast in Northern Ireland and therefore the Trust has a particular responsibility and influence on coastal habitats.
Maritime cliffs and slopes stretch along the north coast at sites such as the Giant’s Causeway, Whitepark Bay, Fair Head and Murlough Bay while extensive sand dune complexes can be found at Murlough National Nature Reserve, Portstewart Strand and Whitepark Bay. Some of the best examples of coastal salt-marsh occur on Strangford Lough, the Bann Estuary, Ballymacormick Point and along the Dundrum coastal path while vegetated shingle, a particularly scarce habitat in Northern Ireland, can be found at the Giant’s Causeway, Mourne Coastal Path, Strangford Lough and Kearney.
Coastal management is a priority theme for the Trust, and we have a particular role to play in promoting a greater understanding of the importance and benefits of accepting natural coastal processes (eg erosion and deposition) without intervention where appropriate.
National Trust Coastal Campaign
The National Trust's Neptune Coastline Campaign was launched under its original title, Enterprise Neptune, way back in 1965 (having been preceded by the Ulster Coastline Appeal in 1962).
Since then, more than £35m has been donated to help the Trust protect threatened coastline, eclipsing all of the charity's other fundraising campaigns.
Today over 400 miles of coastline is owned by the National Trust as a whole, a large proportion of which is in Northern Ireland.
Purchasing coastline threatened by inappropriate development allows the Trust not only to protect it forever, but also allows us to provide public access to scenic cliff-tops, dunes, beaches, harbours and estuaries for everyone.
And in addition to their scenic attraction, our coastal properties provide unspoilt habitats for a wide range of birds and other wildlife.
But the Trust's work on the coast did not start in 1965 with the Neptune Coastline Campaign. It goes right back to the charity's earliest days - in fact our very first property, given in 1895, was Dinas Oleu, which overlooks Cardigan Bay in North Wales.
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