In late Victorian and Edwardian times, Whitehead was a popular seaside holiday destination developed by and visitors flocked from Belfast and the surrounding area each year. Whitehead is a Victorian railway village with a well preserved conservation area, including the railway station. It is home to the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland, County Antrim Yacht Club and the Council owned Bentra Golf Course, as well as being the starting point for the popular Gobbins Path. The town also was home to an aerodrome during the First World War which housed two airships. A pioneering Irish railway engineer called Berkeley Deane Wise took this tourism endeavour to the next level, creating innovative new paid-for attractions that would encourage visitors to use the railway company's services. Just south of Gobbins Path, Wise helped transform the tiny hamlet of Whitehead into a premier holiday resort. He designed and built a bandstand, ladies and gents bathing boxes, a ‘children’s corner’, a slipway and a pavilion with 500 seats. Whitehead received a silver at the Britain in Bloom awards in 2005 & 2006 and a bronze in 2007 with the local Brighter Whitehead group planting many of the flowers. In 2012 Northern Ireland's only Jubilee Wood was planted at Whitehead to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.
Blackhead Coastal Path
The Blackhead Path was built by the Victorians in 1892, partly funded by the railway company, to attract day trippers and holiday makers to Whitehead which was at the time a growing tourist destination and resort. Wise also built a new path Blackhead Path along the coast from Whitehead to the lighthouse at Blackhead, overlooking the town, in 1892. To reach the lighthouse he added several bridges and a tunnel. Wise soon had ambitious plans for a much more elaborate path built on sheer cliffs a few miles to the north: The Gobbins Path was about to be born. This free accessible path is a seaside walk past Sunshine House, around Blackhead Lighthouse and along the Irish Sea cliffs of Islandmagee. In 2018 Blackhead Path has been closed due to health & safety issues and a possibility of severe landslip. The Mid and East Antrim Council will start a full renovation of the whole path. Works are scheduled to be starting in April 2019 and last at least till 2020.
Education
One primary school exists within the town - Whitehead Primary School. Another school, Lourdes Primary School, operated until June 2011. Whitehead High School, an all-girls secondary school, was present until its closure in 1986. It is now the site of a nursing home.
Neighbours actress Jackie Woodburne lived in Whitehead before her family emigrated to Australia.
Sting lived & holidayed with ex-wife Frances Tomelty in Whitehead during the mid-1970s. The wooden house on the coastal path that they holidayed in was originally a temperance hotel and has recently been replaced with a new building. He was also known to have stayed on the top road to the lighthouse and Chester Ave.
