# Things to do Free Things to Do

Source: https://nisocial.com/listing-category/free-things-to-do/
Part of: https://nisocial.com/
Places listed: 3

No ticket, no booking. Some of these are the best days out in Northern Ireland, and a few of them are free in ways the official pages do not make obvious.

## Places

### Divis and the Black Mountain

The closest proper hill walk to Belfast city centre - about twenty minutes from the middle of town to a ridge with views over the whole city, the Mournes, and on a clear day Scotland. Most visitors go to Cave Hill instead and never find it.

Full entry: https://nisocial.com/listing/divis-and-the-black-mountain/
Cost: Free to walk. The land is owned by the National Trust and the trails are open access. | How long: The Ridge Trail is about 5km and takes most people two hours. The shorter Summit Trail can be done in an hour. | Parking: Park at the National Trust car park on the Divis Road, beside the Long Barn. It is the obvious starting point and the trails are signed from it. Check the National Trust page for current opening and parking arrangements before you set off, as the gate hours change seasonally.

### The Dark Hedges

The beech avenue on the Bregagh Road, famous from Game of Thrones. The road is closed to traffic, so the thing most visitors get wrong is where to park - and nobody warns you that storms have thinned the trees since the photographs you have seen.

Full entry: https://nisocial.com/listing/the-dark-hedges/
Cost: Free. There is no ticket, gate or visitor centre. | How long: 20 to 30 minutes to walk the avenue and back, longer if you are photographing it. | Parking: You cannot drive or park on the avenue itself - Bregagh Road has been closed to through traffic since 2017 to protect the roots. Use the signed car park at the Hedges Hotel estate on the Ballinlea Road and walk in. People still abandon cars on the verges of the surrounding lanes; those roads are narrow, working farm roads and you will block a tractor.

### The Mourne Mountains

The highest ground in Northern Ireland, and the only part of it that feels like real mountains. Free to walk, genuinely serious in bad weather, and almost everyone climbs the wrong summit.

Full entry: https://nisocial.com/listing/mourne-mountains/
Cost: Free. The hills are open access and there is no charge to walk any of them. The exception is Silent Valley, which is a managed reservoir park with a car park charge. | How long: Slieve Donard from Newcastle is four to five hours return. Slieve Binnian is four to six. Silent Valley, at the other end of the scale, is a comfortable afternoon. | Parking: Donard Park in Newcastle is the default start and is full by nine on a summer weekend - after that people park badly on the approach roads and get ticketed. Bloody Bridge, on the A2 a few miles south, is a quieter start for Donard and Chimney Rock. Carrick Little serves Binnian and the southern hills. Silent Valley has its own pay car park.