Things to Do in County Down

More about County Down

Choosing a base under the mountains or on the lough

Down is small enough to cross in an hour and a half, but the two halves pull in different directions. Newcastle is the obvious base for the Mournes: promenade, a strip of places to eat, and the Donard trailhead at the edge of town, which is exactly why it fills on fine summer weekends and every bank holiday. Rostrevor is the softer alternative on the Carlingford Lough side — warmer, wooded, better for mountain biking, and half an hour from the same hills by the coast road. Annalong and Kilkeel are working harbours rather than resorts, cheaper and quieter. On the other side of the county, Portaferry sits on the Narrows with the ferry at the end of the street and puts Mount Stewart and the Ards within easy reach. Bangor and Holywood are commuter towns on Belfast Lough with more hotel stock than anywhere else in the county and a train into Belfast in twenty-odd minutes — the practical choice if you want a city evening as well.

Walking the Mournes

Slieve Donard is 850 m and the usual route starts from Donard Park in Newcastle, following the Glen River up through the forest to the col and then the last steep pull beside the wall — reckon on four to five hours return, and expect the top to be in cloud more often than not. The Mourne Wall itself was built between 1904 and 1922 to enclose the water catchment, runs about 22 miles and crosses fifteen summits; the full circuit is a serious day. For something shorter, Tollymore has waymarked river walks under Gothic arches and follies with no navigation required, and Castlewellan has a lake circuit and the Peace Maze. The Silent Valley reservoir gives you the high Mournes from a car park, with a longer walk up to the dam at Ben Crom and the odd, colour-shifting Blue Lough beyond it. Above Rostrevor, Kilbroney climbs to the Cloughmore Stone, a glacial erratic left on the hillside with the whole of Carlingford Lough below.

Strangford Lough and the Ards

The lough is a drowned drumlin field — a hundred-odd islands, and tides that rip through the Narrows fast enough to drive turbines. The Strangford to Portaferry ferry crosses in about eight minutes and saves an hour of driving round the head of the lough; it runs frequently through the day and takes cars. Mount Stewart has the best planted garden in the north, sheltered enough by the lough’s microclimate to grow things that should not survive this far up, plus the Temple of the Winds above the shore. Castle Espie is the place for the birds: most of the world’s light-bellied brent geese arrive here from Arctic Canada in October, and the hides are busiest and best from then through winter. On Mahee Island, reached by causeway, Nendrum has the remains of an early monastery and the excavated tide mill dated to the seventh century — the oldest known anywhere. Exploris in Portaferry has the aquarium and a seal sanctuary and is the reliable wet-weather day with children.

Patrick, Lecale and the stones

Downpatrick is where the Patrick story is anchored: Down Cathedral on the hill above the town with the granite slab over the reputed grave, and the Saint Patrick Centre below it. Saul, two miles out, is where he is said to have landed and preached first, and the small 1930s church there is usually empty. The Lecale peninsula beyond is flat, farmed and largely ignored by visitors, with tower houses at Ardglass — six of them in one small harbour town — and a striped lighthouse at Killough. Inland, on the shoulder of Slieve Croob, Legananny is a tripod dolmen balanced on three uprights with the Mournes filling the horizon behind it; it is free and always open, but the lanes to it are single-track and the signage is poor.

Beaches, dunes and rainy days

Murlough was Ireland’s first nature reserve, a 6,000-year-old dune system with boardwalks over the marram and seals hauled out in Dundrum Bay. Tyrella is the long sandy strand a little further west, lifeguarded in summer and shallow enough for small children, and Cranfield sits at the county’s southern tip on Carlingford Lough with the Cooley mountains directly across the water. On the Ards side the beaches are smaller and more sheltered — Millisle has a tidal paddling lagoon, and Ballyholme in Bangor is the sailing one. When the weather turns, Cultra has the folk and transport museums on one site between Belfast and Bangor, and the Game of Thrones Studio Tour at Banbridge holds the sets and costumes indoors.

Timing

The Mournes are at their worst in low cloud and their best on a clear day in May or September; check the forecast rather than the calendar. Strangford is the reverse — the goose numbers peak from October to March. If golf is the point, Royal County Down is one of the hardest tee times to get in Ireland and needs booking months out.