Still known locally as Bertha’s, or Love’s Bar in memory of the Love family, who owned it for generations, the Castlerock Bar actually began life as a six-bedroom hotel back somewhere between 1830 and 1840.
Today it’s a small, intimate, cellar bar at the bottom of a fine three-storey house which sits right beside the golf club and commands a fine sweeping view of the beach.


It’s a small bar, yes, but one that is immensely popular with the people of the village, and with the caravan visitors who swell its business in the holiday season.


The friendly, easy-going landlord has plans to revive its role as a hotel, and introduce other developments such as a beer garden and barbecue area, but with regard to extending the size of the bar itself, he sums up the situation as follows: “When they can’t get in they want it bigger, but when they are in they want it kept unchanged”.


Anybody got any answers to that one?


It would be hard to find a warmer-hearted pub, that’s for sure.


After a walk along the beach, or a swim, you’ll find it hard to resist the cosy atmosphere and pleasant company of the unpretentious, welcoming Castlerock Bar.