Lighting Strategy: Seeing the Town in a New Light
A town doesn’t stop being itself when the sun goes down, yet some parts of Carrickfergus don’t currently show their best side after dark. The lighting strategy has been developed to enhance quality, safety and legibility of the town’s night-time environment while reinforcing its unique historic character.
Lighting can shape how the town feels, how safe people feel within it, and how easily they find their way between its key destinations. The strategy forms part of the wider public realm improvements and provides a clear, coordinated framework that future phases of development can integrate with, so the town’s night-time identity grows stronger and more coherent over time, rather than piece by piece.
Revealing the town’s story after dark
Carrickfergus has one of the richest historic settings in Ireland, and the lighting strategy treats it as something to be revealed, not just illuminated.
The historic town walls, the oldest stone fortifications in Ulster will be gently washed with light using a wall-grazing technique that expresses the texture and undulations of the stonework, allowing their elevation, materiality and form to be appreciated after dark. Where sections of the wall have been lost over the centuries, a thin vector of light set into the ground will trace the outer edge of the old wall line, so even the parts of the wall that no longer stand can be read at night, and the full circuit of the historic town becomes visible for the first time in generations.
Together, these create the Walk of Light: a continuous illuminated route around the historic core, following the line of the town walls from the surviving stone to the lost sections traced in light. For the first time in generations, the full circuit of the walled town will be visible after dark, a walk through 850 years of history that only reveals itself at night.
Light plays a part in the town’s newest stories too. In the Waterfront Park, the sculptural salt cubes, a nod to the town’s salt industry heritage will glow gently at night, adding a different dynamic to the space and offering a canvas for artists’ projections. The new seating plinth at Castle Parade Square, etched with references to the town’s history, takes on its own character after dark.
A safer, more welcoming town
Through consultation, people of all ages told us that parts of the town feel unwelcoming after dark, a concern raised particularly strongly by younger residents, and especially teenage girls, who described avoiding poorly lit streets, vacant buildings and the underpass.
The strategy responds directly. Functional street lighting within the town centre will be upgraded and rationalised: single columns carrying multiple luminaires will maximise light coverage while reducing the number of poles and fittings, creating a safe, comfortable, pedestrian-focused environment. The underpass, identified in consultation as a place people avoid will be improved with new lighting, planting and street art, connecting it into the heritage walk.
Better lighting works alongside the wider proposals to activate underused buildings and spaces, increasing evening activity, footfall and natural surveillance, the things that make a town centre feel genuinely safe rather than merely lit.
Changing how the town is seen
Lighting shapes perception. A well-lit town reads as cared-for, confident and open for business. By decluttering the streetscape, coordinating fittings into a single family and giving the town’s most important heritage a considered night-time presence, the strategy helps shift how Carrickfergus is experienced by residents, by visitors, and by anyone passing along the shore of Belfast Lough after dark.
The approach is deliberately scaled to the historic, provincial character of the town. Developed in close consultation with the Historic Environment Division, it avoids overloading the setting with visual and lighting clutter, confident illumination, not floodlit spectacle. It’s the brand idea made physical: glory in the old, made new.
Connecting key destinations
The Walk of Light also does practical wayfinding work. The continuous illuminated line provides intuitive navigation around the edge of the historic core, a route you can follow by light alone linking the spaces along the walled walk: Irish Gate, the North Gate pocket park, the Jacobean Garden at the North East Bastion, the improved underpass and the castle beyond. Together with the coordinated street lighting and the illuminated landmarks along the way, lighting helps stitch the waterfront, the commercial core and the historic quarters into one coherent whole strengthening the connections between key destinations and encouraging people to keep exploring after dark.
Designed responsibly
Brighter doesn’t mean careless. The strategy is designed to control light spill, avoid clutter and manage out-of-hours operation, with a formal lighting assessment, including predicted light levels at the nearest homes. Following consultation feedback, the lighting has also been developed sensitively to minimise any impact on local wildlife. The result is a night-time environment that is accessible, well-lit and attractive, respectful of neighbours, nature and the town’s heritage alike.
For 850 years, Carrickfergus has stood watch over Belfast Lough. Now, when night falls, the town’s story will keep shining.
