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Portrush and Ramore Head

Headland · Salt water · in The Causeway and Antrim coast

A basalt and dolerite headland projecting north from the Antrim coast, with rock platforms, gullies and the Skerries — a low reef chain — lying a short distance offshore. Hard igneous rock, deep gullies and clean sand in the bays either side.

Safety: cliffs and rock platforms — can cause serious injury or death. 3 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 · 5

What these strengths mean
Regular local target
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.
How breadth is counted
A fish documented at six marks is shown as six marks: breadth never raises the strength on its own. A fishery account describes the fishing; a recorded catch reports one specific catch. How evidence is weighed.

Also associated with this ground

Recorded as present here without a documented method or strength behind them.

European sea bass

Fish documented nearby, not here

Nothing below has been documented at Portrush and Ramore Head 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 Benone Strand and Magilligan; Portstewart Strand; The Bann mouth at Castlerock (+4 more)
  • Saithe — documented at Portballintrae; Ballycastle; Cushendun and Torr Head (+5 more)
  • Small-spotted catshark — documented at Portstewart Strand; Ballycastle; Cushendun and Torr Head (+2 more)
  • Bull huss — documented at Ballycastle; Cushendun and Torr Head; Carnlough (+1 more)
  • Dab — documented at Ballycastle; Glenarm; Ballintoy
  • Whiting — documented at Portstewart Strand; Glenarm; 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.

  • Float fishing

    Suspending a bait at a controlled depth beneath a buoyant indicator — the most visual, most controllable and most widely applicable method in angling.

  • Spinning

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

  • 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.

  • Kayak fishing

    A platform rather than a technique: quiet, shallow-draught access to water no other craft reaches, bought at the price of exposure, and a discipline where the decision not to launch is part of the skill.

The ground and the water

The ground
A basalt and dolerite headland projecting north from the Antrim coast, with rock platforms, gullies and the Skerries — a low reef chain — lying a short distance offshore. Hard igneous rock, deep gullies and clean sand in the bays either side.
Exposure
Fully open to the North Atlantic from west through north-east. This coast receives ocean swell with nothing between it and Iceland.
Depth
Deep close in off the head; shallow and broken over the reef.
Tide and flow
Moderate range but strong coastal streams, accelerating between the head and the Skerries.

Getting there

What public sources describe, last checked 2026-08-24. Car parks fill, services change and a path existing is not a path anybody may use — none of this is a guarantee of availability and none of it is permission to be anywhere.

Getting to it
The harbour sits about a quarter of a mile from the town, under the headland. The council operates it and posts a standing notice that siltation has reduced the depth at the entrance, so the charted depth is not what a small boat should plan on.
Where this access information comes from
  • Portrush Harbour — Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council (Local authority, harbour or protected-area body)Relied on for: The harbour's operator, its depth, its standing siltation notice and its quayside facilities.States this directlyPassage read and verified

What is there

  • Harbour facilities

    A council-operated harbour taking vessels to twenty metres with a two-metre draft, carrying about three metres at mean low water springs. Quayside waste receptacles; waste oil by prior arrangement. Working channel VHF 12.

Through the year

Pollack, wrasse and mackerel through the warmer months; cod and coalfish over the rough ground in the colder half.

The months the sources attach to each species here. Where a species carries no season it is listed underneath rather than assumed to run through the year.

The months in which each species is recorded as caught at this location.
SpeciesJFMAMJJASOND
Atlantic cod — regular local target, recorded in November, December, January, February.
Ballan wrasse — regular local target, recorded in May, June, July, August, September, October.
Pollack — regular local target, recorded in May, June, July, August, September, October.
Atlantic mackerel — seasonal, recorded in June, July, August, September.

Recorded here with no season stated: Conger eel.

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 serious injury or death

Tidal streams past the headlands and through the sounds run faster than a kayak can paddle or a small outboard can push against, producing overfalls and standing waves. A craft that enters the acceleration goes where the water goes, and the mistake is made on the approach.

What reduces it: Treat the tidal stream atlas as the primary document and the wind forecast as secondary. Know when the stream turns at the specific place, do not attempt a sound on springs, plan the return as carefully as the outward passage, and give visible overfalls a wide margin.

Worse when:

  • On spring tides, when the streams run hardest and the overfalls are largest.
  • With wind against the stream, which stands the race into steep breaking water.

Weather and lightning — Can cause injury needing treatment

Atlantic ground swell arrives on this coast in advance of the weather that made it, so a still, bright day can carry a swell capable of clearing the platforms.

What reduces it: Read the swell forecast rather than the wind forecast, and treat a long-period swell as the deciding input regardless of how calm the air is.

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.

Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.

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.

Portrush and Ramore HeadPortballintraePortstewart StrandThe Bann mouth at CastlerockThe River BushDunseverickWhite Park BayBenone Strand and MagilliganBallintoy
Portrush and Ramore Head 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

  • JNCC species and habitat conservation advice — Joint Nature Conservation Committee (Conservation authority)Relied on for: Description, designation and habitat characterisation of the named coastal and marine features of the United Kingdom, and the species characteristically associated with them.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • Cefas science, advice and data on marine and freshwater environments — Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: Marine environmental science for UK shelf seas: sediment characterisation, estuarine process, shellfish bed distribution, tidal range and the monitoring that describes them.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • 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
  • Rock fishing safety and the declared lifejacket areas of New South Wales — NSW Department of Primary Industries and Surf Life Saving NSW (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Rock-platform fishing hazards, the mechanism by which anglers are swept from platforms by sets rather than by average conditions, and the measures that address it.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • RNLI water safety guidance: cold water shock and Float to Live — Royal National Lifeboat Institution (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Cold water shock, immersion response and the advice to carry a means of calling for help on the person.States this directlyPassage read and verified
  • Met Office shipping forecast, inshore waters forecast and marine warnings — Met Office, United Kingdom (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: That inshore waters forecasts, sea state and swell are the operative inputs for shore and small-craft decisions in these waters.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • Portrush Harbour — Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council (Local authority, harbour or protected-area body)Relied on for: That the harbour under Ramore Head is council-operated, and that the council publishes a standing warning about reduced depth at its entrance.States this directlyPassage read and verified
  • Public fishing video with an explicitly stated location — Various public video platforms (Practitioner report)Relied on for: A dated public video whose uploader states, in their own written description or title, that this named ground was fished from a kayak.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

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

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