Portrush has quietly hosted a genuinely strange guest list over the years — an emperor, a future US President, and a billionaire who arrived by accident.
Emperor Pedro II of Brazil, 1877
On Saturday 7 July 1877, Emperor Pedro II of Brazil and Empress Teresa Cristina arrived at Portrush by special train, on a European tour that had brought them to see the Giant’s Causeway. They were met at Donegall Quay in Belfast by the Brazilian consul and escorted north. On arrival, the Emperor was served coffee at Mrs Kane’s hotel — the Royal Hotel run by the same Kane family behind The Causeway Case two decades later — and presented her with a bunch of grapes in return. Rough seas ruled out a boat trip to the sea caves, so the party spent over an hour admiring the Causeway from land instead, buying souvenir “specimen stones” before posing for 100 souvenir photographs at Lord Antrim’s Parlour. The Victorian press covered the visit in detail and, by the standards of the day, remarkably candidly — one report described the Empress as “very small of stature, stout and heavy,” while praising the Emperor as “tall and graceful.” Crowds filled Portrush to see the couple off, cheering as their train pulled away.
Joseph and John F. Kennedy, 1940
In August 1940, US Ambassador to Britain Joseph Kennedy and his son John Fitzgerald Kennedy — 19 years old, 21 years before becoming President — visited Strandmore House in Portrush. The house belonged to the Bolton family, Captains of Royal Portrush Golf Club; Mrs Bolton represented Great Britain and Ireland in golf against the United States, and the Kennedys and Boltons shared a mutual friend who prompted the stopover. Joseph Kennedy made a point of visiting, given his daughter had stayed there some years earlier during a trip to Ireland.
Queen Elizabeth II, 1977 and 2016
Queen Elizabeth II visited Portrush twice, arriving both times aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia — first in 1977 as part of her Silver Jubilee tour of Northern Ireland, and again in 2016 during a visit to the Causeway Coast. On both occasions she lunched at Royal Portrush Golf Club; in 2016, 120 guests joined her to celebrate the voluntary service of local citizens across the borough.
Richard Branson, 1987 (unplanned)
Not every famous visit to Portrush was intentional. In 1987, entrepreneur Richard Branson and fellow adventurer Per Lindstrand were attempting the first hot-air balloon crossing of the Atlantic in the Virgin Atlantic Flyer when the balloon — roughly 21 storeys high, reaching speeds of up to 130mph at 27,000 feet — became uncontrollable. The Royal Navy brought both men into Portrush from the Irish Sea; Lindstrand spent two hours in freezing water before rescue, but both survived the ordeal relatively unscathed.