coantrim

There seems to have been extensive land reclamation since 1955. Google Satellite 3D view - www.google.com/maps/@54.8448983,-5.7937917,89a,35y,323.44...

[Aside] We visited the pale house near the Chaine Memorial Tower (see note right hand side) in 1899 - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaine_Memorial

beachcomber australia And excavation, it’s difficult to reconcile that view with any of the various vintage PRONI maps. The trip could have been worth his while as the fuel would have been tax free for a ‘foreign flight’

Two railways ran side by side to Larne harbour. The Ballymena and Larne railway, a narrow gauge railway and the Belfast and Northern Counties railway, a standard gauge railway. 1950 saw wholesale closures of railways following the formation of the Ulster Transport Authority in 1948. The Ballymena and Larne railway was one of many that were closed than year. The road on the right of the railway lines is still known as the Narrow Gauge Road.

Passenger steamer is the Princess Margaret, older sister of the well known Princess Maud.

I think the twin-funnel, tug-like vessel is pumping water out of the part-submerged vessel - the tug might be registered in Sunderland, but I can't make out the name

The cart on the jetty seems to be on a flat skid, which runs on rails along the jetty.

EDIT: The man behind the horse at the landward end of the jetty seems to be leaning on an empty skid - the cross-rail he's leaning on would support the shafts of the cart

The first edition Ordnance Survey 6" map shows lots of collieries along the coast between Fair Head and Ballycastle, so it seems likely that coal brought by cart to the jetty at Ballycastle, where the skids on the jetty allowed coal to be tipped directly into the ships.
The collieries seem to have worked the coastal cliffs and had great names:
Salt Pans Colliery
White Mine Colliery
Falbane Colliery
North Star Colliery
West Mine Colliery
Lagglass Colliery
Goldnamuck Colliery
Pollard Colliery
Griffin Colliery
Gobb Colliery
Portnagree Colliery

The wreck may well be that of the Grimsby steam trawler Starling which sank in the harbour in 1902.

www.irishwrecksonline.net/Lists/AntrimNorthList.htm

Rory Sherlock It could be George Lindsay Sunderland?

Start here:
www.google.com/search?q=Holden%27s+Laharna+hotel&sca_...

www.ebay.com.au/itm/296003780386?srsltid=AfmBOopYj2D1aUgP...

www.facebook.com/DaughterofLaharna/photos/a.1032682620422...

www.archiseek.com/1905-laharna-hotel-larne-co-antrim/

I might be wrong, but I am guessing the photo is after 1897.

beachcomber australia you might be right!

Here is something: there is a scratched out title line above and to the left of the legible one, which means this is a Cabinet plate copy.
Here is the original Imperial plate image for comparison and maybe more detail -
L_IMP_1029 - catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000329267

Warwickshire Herald - Thursday 25 August 1898

Holidays keepers who intend to spend their summer vacation in the Emerald Isle, can hardly do better than to select Holden's Laharna Hotel, Larne, as their headquarters. The establishment, which is under the efficient personal superintendence of Mr. A. W. Holden. is undoubtedly one of the best in Larne, and visitors will find their material requirements well catered for. In addition to commercial, coffee, dining and drawing rooms. there is a large concert and ball room, promenade roof, tennis court and all the adjuncts of a really first class English or Continental hotel.

and this is what you got for your 2 guineas

For two guineas the can have six days hotel accommodation, including three meals daily. a first-class railway journey to Portrush and Giant's Causeway. a total distance of 180 miles, a coach drive to Glenoe Waterfalls, as trip to Whitehead and Blackhead, a drive round the city of Belfast, with free admission to the principal places. and a fifty mile coach drive to Glenarm, Camlough and Glenariff Falls, along the finest coast in the British Isles. The impression of the visitor to the Laharna Hotel can hardly fail to be that the enterprising host supplies his guest with a marvellous two guineas worth.