Wild Belfast Hills

The Belfast Hills present a stunning backdrop to a thriving urban area. From Colin Mountain in the south to Carnmoney Hill in the north, the great shoulders of these dramatic hills have sheltered Belfast, Lisburn and Newtownabbey across the ages.
More than a backcloth, they are home to a wide variety of animals, birds, plants, fungi, and insects. This array of wildlife with all its genetic variation and the habitats in which wildlife lives is known as Biodiversity. Biodiversity is simply an abbreviation of "biological diversity" and literally means the total variety of life on earth.
In the Belfast Hills, some of this biodiversity is under threat or in need of our help.
The following sections describe some of the special habitats and wildlife in the Belfast Hills. We hope to inspire you to visit the public sites in the hills, see
something of this amazing wildlife for yourself and help us to conserve the wild
Belfast Hills.