Home»All Photographs»2026-06-06th-Cairncastle Classic Fell Race

The Cairncastle Classic Fell Race was held on Saturday 6th June 2026 in the hills above the seaside village of Ballygally on the Antrim Coast Road 25 miles north of Belfast in Northern Ireland.
The race was 10 miles long with 2200 feet of climb. This is equivalent to running 8/10ths of the way up Slieve Donard, the highest mountain in Northern Ireland at 850 metres. The race was a Northern Ireland Mountain Racing Assiciation (NIMRA) event organised by the local East Coast Athletics Club. Ninety five competitors finished the event.
The overall winner was Timothy Johnston from Annadale Striders in a time of 1:13:05.
The first female home was Naomi McCurry, Unattached in a time of 1:33:16.
The weather was dull, with rain showers and the peaks were covered in mist.
I took these images about three miles from the finish and they are in the order runners passed me. I think I have photographs of all runners but one.
If you click the thumbnail you will see the full image with the runner details ie name, club finishing time and finishing position.
Note in a number of instances runners were not displaying a bib so I was not able to annotate these images. I also guessed a few so the names may not be correct were there in no bib.
If anyone can indicate who the runners are please put a comment below the image and I will update it.