The A26 is the key route that connects the large town of Coleraine and the rest of the north coast to Belfast via Ballymoney, Ballymena and Antrim. It thus carries a large amount of traffic (15,000 vehicles per day from Glarryford to the A44). This section of dual-carriageway runs north from the end of the existing M2 Ballymena bypass to Glarryford cross-roads, about a third of the way to Ballymoney. After Glarryford, there are only a few short sections of dual-carriageway for the rest of the route to Coleraine.

A nice feature of this part of the A26 is that close to Glarryford the carriageways split to cross the River Main on two parallel bridges - one historic and one modern. It is nice that the planners did not simply demolish or widen the existing bridge but left it intact.

A scheme is in the pipeline that will see the next part of the A26 dualled - from Glarryford to the A44 Ballycastle road junction. Once complete, two thirds of the route from Ballymena to Ballymoney will be dualled. See future schemes.