Great Western Coffee Shop

A Northern Ireland tourist attraction which has received millions of pounds for repairs and maintenance has been closed nearly as many days as it has open in the past decade.

The Gobbins Cliff Path in Islandmagee, County Antrim reopened to the public in 2015.

Mid and East Antrim Borough Council has spent about £4.3m since 2017 on repairs to the path, which has faced prolonged closures due to rockfalls, storm damage, planned works and inspections.

A Scottish based company that offers tours of Northern Ireland said while they promote the Gobbins on their website, they haven't included it on tours due to its "unreliable" opening.

Heather Rennie-McGill, director of marketing and sales at Rabbie's, said the Gobbins has "real potential" as a "unique attraction".

"If we're selling tours six to 12 months out for customers, and something like this would be a key highlight because the tour lasts two-and-a-half to three hours which is a big chunk of a day, we'd need reliability," she said.

"We can't include things in our itineraries where it would be taken out at the last minute."