Annalong harbour was enlarged in the 1880s to ship dressed granite out of the Mourne quarries, and the trade left the village its best feature: a deep, stone-walled basin that now lands fish and berths yachts at any state of the tide. The name is older than the granite – from the Irish Áth na Long, ‘ford of the ships’, probably a memory of longships sheltering at the river mouth a thousand years ago. There is no archaeological proof the Vikings settled, but the old dialect kept their words: selk for a seal, holm for low river land, set allow for setting something alight. Fish were sold by the ‘long hundred’ of six score, which on this coast meant 127 to the hundred.
The village is small – a population of 2,037 at the 2021 census – and you can walk it in twenty minutes. If you have a day, give the morning to Slieve Binnian from Carrick Little and the afternoon to the harbour and the cornmill. Don’t build the day around the mill, though: it opens for three hours on summer afternoons only, and closes on Tuesdays.
The harbour
The basin dates to the early 1800s and was made bigger in the 1880s to take schooners loading granite for the Silent Valley dam; a purpose-built standard-gauge railway hauled almost all the reservoir’s stone down to the quay. Recent works deepened it and added a pontoon, so small boats and cruisers come and go at any tide. Look into one of the neighbouring gardens and you’ll spot the old leading light that guided boats through the harbour gates. An in-shore skiff fleet still works out of here.
The harbour also holds the village’s hardest memory. On 13 January 1843 the Newcastle and Annalong boats put out for the fishing grounds and were caught by a sudden gale. Fourteen boats were lost, including one that turned back to help; only the Victoria and the Brothers came home. Seventy-six men drowned, 46 of them from Newcastle and 30 from Annalong.
Annalong Cornmill
Built in the early 1800s and worked until the 1960s, this was one of the last running watermills in Northern Ireland; for over a century just three families operated it, beginning with the Atkinsons. Newry and Mourne District Council took it on in the early 1980s and reopened it, and a 2014 restoration added a multi-media display telling the mill, granite and fishing stories. Inside you can still see the 15-foot waterwheel, three pairs of millstones, a grain-drying kiln and a 1920s Marshall ‘hot-bulb’ engine.
The catch is the season: the mill opens April to October, 2pm–5pm, and is closed on Tuesdays. Outside those hours you can still wander the quay and admire the wheel from the bank, but you won’t get inside – plenty of visitors arrive to find it shut, so check the day before you go.
The Coastguard Tower (Rocket House)
On the shore stands a B1-listed coastguard tower from the 1850s, believed to be the only surviving rocket station in Northern Ireland – the rocket apparatus fired lines out to ships running aground so crews could be hauled ashore. It once kept a pigeon loft for sending messages between stations. It’s derelict now and not open, but it reads clearly as what it was from the outside.
Walking from Annalong
Annalong is the most convenient start for the southern High Mournes. From the Carrick Little car park just above the village, the Slieve Binnian loop is about seven miles, climbing to the 747m summit and dropping past the glacial Blue Lough. Much of the ascent runs alongside the Mourne Wall – built between 1904 and 1922 to enclose the 9,000-acre catchment, it crosses 15 summits including Slieve Donard and Binnian itself. The last pull to the tors is a rocky scramble, so wear proper boots; on a clear day you’ll see the Silent Valley reservoir below and the Isle of Man out to sea.
For something flat, the Annalong Coastal Path runs 2.5km along the rocky shore with the mountains rising straight behind it, and links into the long-distance Mourne Way (41km) if you want more.
Marine Park
The Marine Park is the family stop: a modern playground, picnic grass, well-kept toilets, ample free parking and a slipway that launches a boat at any state of the tide. There’s deeper history under your feet, too – when the park was dug in the mid-1980s, 89 pieces of worked flint turned up, possibly 6,000 to 7,000 years old.
Nearby: Silent Valley
Take the Head Road inland and you reach Silent Valley Mountain Park, the reservoir that drew all that Annalong granite. The grounds open daily 10am–6pm (April–October) and 10am–4pm (November–March); admission is £4.50 per car. Easy graded trails – the Nature and Ben Crom trails among them – start from the car park and suit prams and wheelchairs.
Practical information
- Getting there: Annalong sits on the A2 coast road, 8 miles (13km) south of Newcastle and a few miles north of Kilkeel; buses link all three.
- Parking: Free at the Marine Park, Cornmill Quay and the Carrick Little mountain trailhead.
- Facilities: Public toilets with disabled access at the Marine Park and Cornmill Quay; a few shops, cafés and pubs in the village.
- On the hill: Mourne weather turns fast – carry waterproofs, layers and a map, and don’t rely on phone signal on the high ground.
If you can only fit one thing in, make it the Carrick Little walk and treat the cornmill as a bonus rather than the plan – its three-hour afternoon window, closed Tuesdays, catches a lot of people out.