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A Day in Ünye, Castle, Museum and Coast
Cultural

A Day in Ünye, Castle, Museum and Coast

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On the western edge of Ordu Province, set in a relatively flat bay of the coast, Ünye is the most populous district of the province after Altınordu.

Ünye, Ordu
Cultural
Radar Editör
October 19, 2026

About Trip

On the western edge of Ordu Province, set in a relatively flat bay of the coast, Ünye is the most populous district of the province after Altınordu. Its slopes are covered with hazelnut orchards and its shore is lined with long beaches, but the town takes its real character from the old streets that run down to the harbour. This trip is designed for those who want to get to know Ünye in a single day: in the morning the historic fabric around the main square and the museum, at midday a short drive to the castle, in the afternoon a walk along the shore from Burunucu to Çamlık, and in the evening Çakırtepe, the hill that looks down over the town. The castle and the museum are described in detail on their own place pages; here we fit them into the flow of the day.

A town that grew with its harbour

The town history page of Ünye Municipality states that the settlement was founded as an ancient town in the 8th century BC, within the colonisation movement on the Black Sea, and that it is one of the rare places to have carried the name of its founding period down to the present day. The same page reports that excavations by Prof. Dr. Kılıç Kökten pushed the human traces in the area much further back. In old sources the name appears in forms such as Oinoe, Onea and Unieh. The town passed to Hacı Emir Bey in 1346 and to the Ottomans in 1461. Under an arrangement of 1864 it briefly became the seat of a sanjak, reverted to a district three years later, and was attached to Ordu on 4 December 1920.

What made the town wealthy was the sea. Turkish Wikipedia reports that old Ünye was known for building sailing ships, that twenty to twenty-five vessels were built every year, and that goods were carried on these ships to Crimea, Istanbul, Bulgaria and Romania. The municipality notes that the rope needed by the Ottoman navy was supplied from Ünye for a long time. The wealth brought by shipbuilding was reflected in the town as mansions; when the age of steamers began, the shipyards declined and crafts such as coppersmithing, blacksmithing and tinsmithing took their place. In the early 1870s the town had a 250-metre quay and an iron pier; today's pier, moved and rebuilt, stands in front of the square.

Morning, from the square to Kadılar Yokuşu

Start the day in Cumhuriyet Meydanı. The tourist information office of the Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism is on the square, and it can be your first stop for a town map and current visiting information. The Ünye Museum, the Living Cultural Heritage Museum, is right behind the Government House. Walking through the rooms of the mansion in the first hours of the morning, before crowds gather, lets you look at the facades in the streets with different eyes once you have seen the inside of an old Ünye house.

When you leave the museum, head for Kadılar Yokuşu from behind the old bathhouse on the square. The municipality explains that in the Ottoman period Ünye produced many kadis, or judges, that the office passed from father to son within families, and that these families built mansions on the slope, turning it into a neighbourhood of judges. Many of the mansions are still standing. With its original stone paving, carefully crafted entrance gates and old Ünye houses, the street is, in the municipality's words, almost a museum street. The street rehabilitation and urban design work carried out on the slope won the Best Practice Award in the fifteenth edition of the heritage conservation competition held by the Union of Historic Towns. Walk slowly; door frames, eaves and the bond of the stone walls are the best details for photographs.

The slope continues into the Coppersmiths' Arasta. According to the municipality, this bazaar, whose history goes back two hundred years, is the only arasta that still survives with its plan scheme and traditional fabric. It is not as lively as it once was, but you can still hear the sound of hammers. On Hacı Emin Caddesi behind the district governor's building, the Hüseyin Sabri Kadı Mansion, known locally as the Kadı House, is part of the same fabric; after expropriation and restoration the municipality uses the building as a guesthouse. If you turn from the square into Saray Caddesi you will pass the Saray Hamamı, built in the early 19th century together with the Süleyman Paşa Palace. The palace was lost in a fire in the middle of the 19th century, leaving only its walls and the bathhouse; Wikipedia writes that houses belonging to descendants of the family now stand on top of the walls. Because the restoration of the bathhouse continues under the municipality's Culture Route project, you may have to look at it from outside rather than go in.

Midday, a short drive to the castle

Ünye Castle is not in the town centre but on a hilltop about five kilometres southeast of the district, at the seventh kilometre of the Ünye to Niksar road. It is a detour of a few minutes by car; going there at midday, after walking around the centre in the morning, does not break the flow of the day. The castle went through a long restoration; the page of the Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism states that it was closed to visitors in 2022, while an Anadolu Agency report states that it reopened to visitors on 3 June 2025, after the works were completed together with landscaping of its surroundings. Before setting out, ask the information office or the managing institution about the current situation. The climb is steep and stepped, so bring flat shoes and water. Looking down from the summit you can see at a glance how the town you toured in the morning spreads along the shore, and the hazelnut slopes behind it.

Afternoon, a coastal walk from Burunucu to Çamlık

The shore of the town is the best setting for the second half of the day. From the pier in front of the square walk west towards the Yalı quarter. Turkish Wikipedia reports that old Ünye was built on an area stretching from the place called Yalı towards Çakırtepe and that the old houses still stand in this part of town. Past Yalı you reach the historic peninsula at Burunucu. The municipality describes the peninsula as one of the symbols of the town and states that its restoration was completed in 2019. Burunucu has a special place in the town's memory: according to the municipality's crafts page, between 1945 and 1955, considered the golden years of pottery, most of Ünye's earthenware was loaded onto boats here and sent to markets across the country.

As you continue along the coast road towards Çamlık you will see on your right the Turkish-Japanese Friendship and Ertuğrul Frigate Martyrs Monument. The municipality writes that the monument was built in 2014 in memory of the sailors of the frigate that was caught in a typhoon off Kushimoto and sank in 1890 on its return from Japan. A little further on, Çamlık begins. According to the municipality, this area where sea and forest meet, about two kilometres northwest of the town centre, takes its name from the pines planted in the 1940s and can be reached from the centre with a walk of a little over twenty minutes. According to a news report based on Anadolu Agency, Ordu Metropolitan Municipality closed the area to vehicles during its landscaping work, opened a continuous walking path along the shore, replaced the concrete seating groups with wooden picnic tables and paved the access road with old Ünye cut stone. Sitting at the viewpoints above the rocky coves along the paths under the pines and watching the waves becomes the calmest hour of the day. The cove in the cover photograph lies below this belt of pines.

For those who want a beach, Uzunkum begins after Çamlık. The municipality writes that the beach starts about 250 metres beyond Çamlık; Wikipedia counts Uzunkum among the longest beaches on the Black Sea and describes how beaches such as İncekum, İnciraltı and Çınarsuyu form a chain stretching for kilometres to the west. According to the municipality, most of the beaches along Ünye's 27-kilometre shore are made of magnetic black sand; that is why the sand underfoot is so dark. Kırkevler Beach, ten kilometres from the town centre, is a public beach with a ramp for disabled visitors and has received a Blue Flag for several years in a row.

Evening, looking at the town from Çakırtepe

The municipality's geography page states that the nearest high ground to central Ünye is Çakır Tepesi, eighty-one metres high. It is reached with a walk of twenty to twenty-five minutes up from the square or from Yalı; those who do not want to walk can use the minibus lines departing from the centre. The tea gardens on the hill open up a bird's-eye view of the town. Picking out the pier, Burunucu and the pine belt of Çamlık from above at sunset turns the route you walked all day into a map.

The Ünye table

For dinner, turn to the local cuisine. The municipality's list of local dishes includes black cabbage soup, sautéed kaldirik, sautéed melevcen, sautéed chard known as perzi, sautéed pickles, mendek with rice, nettle soup, nemüslü börek, black cabbage rolls with çekinti, and oven-baked beans. The municipality also mentions Çakırtepe as the place to taste the famous Ünye pide. Do not forget to take a handful of hazelnuts home; the municipality points out that Ordu is the province that grows the most hazelnuts in Turkey and that Ünye is one of the districts producing the most hazelnuts in the province.

Season and timing

Ünye has a typical Black Sea climate and the average annual rainfall given by the municipality is above one thousand millimetres; carry a raincoat. Summer months suit the coastal walk and the beach, while spring and autumn suit a town tour away from the crowds. Wikipedia reports that during the hazelnut harvest at the end of July and in August many people go to the villages and the town centre empties, while the period before the harvest is the liveliest time of the year. Ünye's market is held on Wednesdays. Every summer the municipality organises the International Culture, Art and Tourism Festival; check the municipality's events page for the dates.

Practical notes

Ünye lies on the Black Sea coastal highway; it connects to Samsun in the west, to the centre of Ordu in the east and to Tokat via Niksar in the south. Its distance to Altınordu is given in sources as between sixty and sixty-three kilometres. The town centre, the pier, Yalı, Burunucu and Çamlık can all be explored on foot; the municipality's town guide indicates the Green Line for Burunucu. A car or minibus is needed for the castle and Kırkevler. Since the opening days and visiting conditions of the museum and the castle may change, check current information with the managing institutions and the tourist information office on the square. The stone paving of Kadılar Yokuşu can become slippery in the rain; choose comfortable, non-slip shoes. On the rocky parts of the shore, keep away from the edge when the waves are high.

Sources

Location - A Day in Ünye, Castle, Museum and Coast

Trip Info
CityÜnye, Ordu
TypeCultural
DateOctober 19, 2026
SourceRadar Editör
Radar TürkiyeAuthorRadar TürkiyeVisit SourceGet Directions