Co Antrim’s famous coastal path at The Gobbins is set to reopen next week on Tuesday 1 September. months after it was closed in the initial wave of coronavirus restrictions in Northern Ireland.

As RTÉ News reports, the cliff path — which was restored in 2015 after being closed for decades — has had a number of safety upgrades to allow for social distancing and hygiene standards to fight the spread of coronavirus.

Prebooking is also essential to allow for proper management of the popular Islandmagee attraction, renowned for its white-knuckle series of rugged steps, tunnels, caves and bridges.

#MarineWildlife - Islandmagee locals are appealing to Northern Ireland's Environment Minister to add their waters to the list of recently proposed Marine Conservation Zones.

As the Belfast Telegraph reports, the call comes over fears that a planned Gaelectric gas power station could create a 'dead zone' in the North Channel caused by brine runoff from the plant.

Gaeletric maintains that even under a worst-case scenario, any impact of brine pumped into the sea on marine wildlife and plantlife would be low.

But the Islandmagee Community Residents Association argues that the development poses a threat to a "delicate and biodiverse" ecosystem in the area, which is home to vulnerable colonies of puffins as well as black guillemots and razorbills, among others.

As reported in December on Afloat.ie, Rathlin, Waterfoot, Outer Belfast Lough and Carlingford Lough were put forward for consideration as Marine Conservation Zones, the public consultation for which closed last Friday 11 March.

The Belfast Telegraph has more on the story HERE.

#Rescue - A woman is in stable condition in hospital after she was rescued from a sea cliff in Islandmagee on Tuesday (27 October) an operation that "wasn’t straightforward", as the News Letter reports.

It's believed the woman had been walking along the top coastal path when she got into difficulty late on Tuesday evening.

She was airlifted from the site by helicopter tasked from Scotland after being stabilised by paramedics.

The incident comes just weeks after emergency services rushed to the aid of an elderly man who fainted on the newly reopened Gobbins cliff walk in the same area.

The new cliff path has been hailed by the Guardian as "a reboot of a magnificent feat of engineering that originally opened in 1902", with local musical hero Michael Bradley of the Undertones writing about its heart-stopping mix of beauty and danger.