Cullybackey

Cullybackey is a quiet village on the banks of the River Maine in County Antrim, about four miles north-west of Ballymena. Its name comes from the Irish Coill na Baice, meaning the wood of the river bend, and the riverside character still defines the village today. A small railway halt on the Belfast to Derry/Londonderry line makes it easily reachable by public transport, and the surrounding rolling countryside is classic mid-Antrim farmland.

The village is best known internationally as the boyhood home of Chester Alan Arthur, the 21st President of the United States. The Arthur Ancestral Home, a whitewashed thatched cottage just outside the village at Dreen, has been preserved and opened to the public, telling the story of the family's emigration to America in 1815 and the President's Ulster Scots roots.

Visitors can also follow the River Maine walks, a network of footpaths along the wooded riverbanks popular with anglers and birdwatchers, and call into the village's traditional pubs and tearooms. Cullybackey makes a pleasant short stop on a tour through mid-Antrim, easily combined with Galgorm, Ballymena and the Glens of Antrim further east.