Glorious sunshine brings Northern Ireland’s caravans out in force this weekend as good weather set to continue into next week

As such caravan parks around the Province will be at near capacity and those who've left it late might end up having to make alternative arrangements.

Saturday and Sunday are likely to follow the pattern of the latter part of with week, with morning cloud making way for strong sunshine and dry, bright conditions. Highs of around 23 degrees have been forecast over the two days.

Carnfunnock Caravan Park’s Rory McAllister said the weather has provided a significant boost to the site.

He commented: "We’re pretty much fully booked this weekend bar one space. The bank holiday was the same – from Friday through to Monday we were completely booked up.”

The caravan park, located in Mid and East Antrim Borough Council-owned Carnfunnock Country Park near Larne, has 30 pitches available for touring caravans. The park itself has a number of family-friendly activities including a fun zone at weekends.

Rory said: "The good weather has brought in a lot of inquiries about caravan pitches and our tent camping. It actually does start for another week. We’re only taking touring caravans.

"Last year we started our camping at Easter time, but this year the ground condition wasn’t great because our weather has been shocking up to this point.”

Into next week and temperatures across the UK are set to rise again and could reach a record-high for the year so far.

Stephen Dixon, spokesman for the Met Office, said temperatures will be higher next weekend, but it is not what they would define as a heatwave.

He said: “There will be plenty of dry, fine and sunny weather through the weekend in the UK with high pressure still in charge, seeing some warmer temperatures, possibly seeing [temperatures in the] low-20s especially in the west. A good weekend for the vast majority of the UK.

“Areas further east have been seeing more prolonged cloud, generally in the mid or low teens and that’s going to continue for the eastern areas.

“As we move towards next weekend there’s a signal for temperatures possibly getting towards the mid-20s. It’s not anything we’d call a heatwave, but there’s some signals for later next week and into next weekend for higher temperatures, particularly in the south.

“The high pressure will be in place for the foreseeable future.

“There’s a chance of some lighter showers for parts of Northern Ireland and perhaps Scotland for Tuesday and Wednesday, they will be very isolated.

“As we move into next weekend, although the temperature is looking to increase in the south, that does increase the chance of some isolated showers popping up.

“It is western areas that are looking likely to have the longer sunny periods, parts of Wales as well as the south-west of England, but for the vast majority it will be feeling very pleasant with sunshine.

“It will be slightly warmer than average but not beyond what we’d normally see.”

The highest temperature in the UK so far this year was 25.1C in Porthmadog in north Wales on Tuesday.