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The Black Arch, Larne

Rock mark · Salt water · in The Causeway and Antrim coast

The rocks on the southern side of the tunnel cut through the basalt cliff at Blackcave Head, where the Antrim coast road begins two miles north of Larne. Hard igneous rock running straight into deep water, with the road immediately above and the fished ground a short scramble below it.

Safety: cliffs and rock platforms — can cause serious injury or death. 2 more points apply here.

What each one does, and what reduces it ↓

FishingHQ describes what this place is, not whether you may fish it. Access, permits and who to ask.

What you can catch here

Documented at this place, grouped by how you would be fishing, with how strongly the sources support each one. This is what has been written down, not a forecast, and being listed is never permission to fish.

From the shore · 6

Spearfishing · 2

What these strengths mean
Established quarry
Fishing sources describe this as a normal local target here, not merely as caught.
Seasonal
Well supported, and concentrated in part of the year rather than spread through it.
Places, accounts and sources are counted separately
A fish documented once at each of six marks is still documented once at each of six marks. Breadth is reported as a place count and never raises the strength, and sources are deduplicated across places so one publisher covering a whole coast counts as one. A fishery account is a source describing the fishing; a recorded catch is a report of a specific catch. They are counted apart because they are not the same evidence.

Fish documented nearby, not here

Nothing below has been documented at The Black Arch, Larne itself. Each one has been documented at a named place on the same ground, and the places are listed with it. Treat this as what the water around here holds rather than as a catch list for this mark.

Widely documented on this ground

Documented at three or more neighbouring places, fished a way this place is also fished. That is a pattern about the ground rather than about any one mark, and it is the closest this site comes to saying you will probably meet a fish somewhere nothing has been written about.

From the shore

  • European flounder — documented at Ballycastle; Glenarm; Ballygalley (+3 more)
  • Bull huss — documented at Ballycastle; Cushendun and Torr Head; Carnlough (+1 more)
  • Dab — documented at Ballycastle; Glenarm; Ballygalley (+1 more)
  • European sea bass — documented at Ballycastle; Glenarm; Ballygalley (+1 more)
  • Small-spotted catshark — documented at Ballycastle; Cushendun and Torr Head; Garron Point (+1 more)
  • Whiting — documented at Glenarm; Ballygalley; Waterfoot and Red Bay
  • Turbot — documented at Ballycastle; Ballintoy; White Park Bay

Also documented at neighbouring places

One or two accounts each, on the ground around here. Enough to know the fish is caught in these waters; not enough to say anything about this place.

From the shore

How people fish it

Practised here: Sea fishing, Spearfishing.

Methods the sources name for this ground. Each one is explained in full on its own page.

  • Ledgering

    Fishing a bait on the bottom held by a weight, with no float — the simplest way to fish at distance, in depth, or in wind.

  • Spinning

    Casting an artificial lure and retrieving it so that it moves like something alive — the most direct form of lure fishing.

The ground and the water

The ground
The rocks on the southern side of the tunnel cut through the basalt cliff at Blackcave Head, where the Antrim coast road begins two miles north of Larne. Hard igneous rock running straight into deep water, with the road immediately above and the fished ground a short scramble below it.
Exposure
Open east and north-east across the mouth of Larne Lough into the North Channel, with the Scottish coast twenty miles off.
Depth
Deep close in against hard rock.
Tide and flow
The North Channel stream runs past the head and the ferry traffic in and out of Larne passes close enough that its wash is a feature of the mark rather than an event.

Through the year

Spun and legered through the year for pollack and coalfish, with conger and cod over the rough bed. A practitioner account describes it being spun for pollack and coalfish in October.

Safety

Cliffs and rock platforms — Can cause serious injury or death

Anglers are swept from rock platforms by individual large sets rather than by the average sea, which means the conditions that kill people frequently look survivable for the twenty minutes before they arrive. Wet rock, weed and a swell running onto a sloping platform remove any chance of recovery.

What reduces it: Watch the water for a full set cycle before committing to a position, know the escape route and how long it takes, wear a flotation aid rather than carry one, never fish a platform alone, and treat a rising swell forecast as a reason not to go rather than a reason to be careful.

Cold water shock — Can cause serious injury or death

UK coastal and inland water is cold enough for most of the year to trigger the involuntary gasp and the loss of swimming ability that decides most immersion deaths, and it does so within the first minute, long before hypothermia is relevant.

What reduces it: Wear a buoyancy aid rather than carry one, carry a means of calling for help on the person rather than in a bag, and plan on the assumption that an unplanned entry into the water is survivable only if somebody knows immediately.

Moving water and currents — Can cause injury needing treatment

Ferries running to and from Larne pass this head, and the wash from a large vessel arrives well after it has gone by and well after the water has looked settled again. Two separate guides on this coast name ferry wash as the hazard at the marks nearest the port.

What reduces it: Treat a passing ferry as a wave that has not arrived yet, keep off the lowest ledges while one is in sight or has recently passed, and allow a wide margin of time rather than assuming the water is finished with you.

Rules and access

FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling access in Northern Ireland is governed by landowner permission, harbour and council byelaws, and fisheries and conservation measures, all of which change. Check the current position with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, the harbour or council, and the landowner before going.

Who holds the answer:

  • The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, for sea fisheries and marine conservation in Northern Ireland.
  • The harbour authority or council, for access to the structure or the shore.
  • The Northern Ireland department responsible for agriculture, environment and rural affairs, which administers sea fisheries measures and marine conservation here.
  • The Loughs Agency, the cross-border body administering the Foyle and Carlingford systems, whose licensing arrangements differ from the rest of Northern Ireland.
  • The Northern Ireland Environment Agency and the site management bodies, where a coastal, geological or World Heritage designation affects access or activity.
  • The National Trust or other landowner, where access to the shore crosses land in their ownership.
  • The harbour authority at each port, for access to and fishing from harbour structures.

Nearby fishing

Other publicly documented places within about 40 km, by distance. Positions are approximate public geography and are never exact marks.

The Black Arch, LarneBallygalleyLarne LoughPortmuck and Browns BayIslandmagee and the GobbinsGlenarmWhiteheadCarnloughCarrickfergus
The Black Arch, Larne and the publicly documented places around it. Approximate positions, not marks. On a narrow screen the plot is wider than the screen and scrolls sideways inside its frame. Positions are approximate by design — they are capped at about a hundred metres and describe where a named public place is, not where fish are and not a mark. Everything plotted here is also listed below.

Sources for this place

  • Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Long-running published description of British sea angling practice by region, ground type and named mark.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated public descriptions of which places are conventionally fished and how, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as scholarship, and not relied on for access, permission or any current rule.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • Sea Angling in Ireland: the shore marks of Antrim — Sea Angling Ireland (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: A shore-mark directory describing this mark's ground, species, methods, baits and the walk in.States this directlyPassage read and verified

How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy. Last reviewed 2026-08-16.

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