Guysmere is situated in the village of Castlerock Co Londonderry, practically at the centre point of the North Coast of Northern Ireland.  It is five miles west of Coleraine and part of the Causeway Coast and Glens district. It lies within the Binevenagh Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The Guysmere centre site is located on the edge of the award winning, Blue Flag Castlerock Beach which stretches for just under a mile.  When the new centre is created the guests who use the facility will have direct access onto this magnificent beach, facilitating a wide range of sporting and leisure activities.

CS Lewis was born in Belfast on 29th November 1898. As a boy he and his family travelled by train to Castlerock each year for their summer holidays. They stayed in a house in Main Street, and it was at the age of four, on the beach in Castlerock that he first insisted he should be called “Jacksie”. This was after his dog “Jacksie”, which had been killed by a car. At first he would answer to no other name, but later he accepted “Jack”, the name by which he was known to friends and family for the rest of his life.

Lewis was baptised into the Church of Ireland as an infant but fell away from his faith during adolescence. However, Lewis returned to the Christian faith at the age of 32 and became a member of the Church of England. His new found faith profoundly affected his work in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

He wrote around 30 books including Christian apologetics, fantasy, science fiction and children’s literature. He is perhaps best known for “The Chronicles of Narnia” which have been popularised on stage, TV, radio and cinema.