Benone Strand

Benone is about the closest thing Northern Ireland has to a natural runway: seven miles of hard, flat sand backed by the basalt scarp of Binevenagh, with Mussenden Temple perched on the clifftop at the Downhill end and the Inishowen hills filling the frame across Lough Foyle. It's a council-operated beach, you can drive onto the sand, and outside summer weekends you'll often have a hundred metres of space in every direction. The money shots are low-tide reflections of Binevenagh at golden hour and a long pull-back along the surf line towards the temple — but Downhill Demesne itself is National Trust, so keep take-off and landing on the public beach and don't buzz the temple at low level. This is a fully exposed, north-facing Atlantic beach: onshore wind and salt haze are the norm, and the cliff line throws rotor in southerlies, so climb with margin. The Magilligan firing ranges sit at the far western end — check NOTAMs before ranging that way. Winter mornings give you empty sand, huge sky and the best light of the year.