Most of these places sit in one of two parts of the county. Five are in or under the Mournes: Newcastle, where the beach ends at the foot of Slieve Donard; Annalong, whose granite quay was enlarged in the 1880s to load stone onto schooners and still lands fish; Kilkeel, which works the largest fishing fleet in Northern Ireland; Rostrevor, where the mountains come down to Carlingford Lough; and Kilcoo, a foothills village with the dry-stone ringfort at Drumena Cashel. The rest ring Strangford Lough and the Ards Peninsula, from Comber and Newtownards at the head of the lough round to Donaghadee, Portavogie and Portaferry.
Two of them face each other across the Narrows. The car ferry between Portaferry and Strangford has run since 1611 and still crosses every half-hour, so the pair are worth treating as one outing rather than a long drive round the shore.
Banbridge is the outlier, inland on the River Bann to the west, known for The Cut, the 1834 underpass driven through the middle of its main street. The harbours reward an early start; Kilkeel is at its best at dawn, when the trawlers unload. Newcastle and Rostrevor both fill up on fine summer weekends, and both put a forest park within a few minutes of the seafront. Without a car, Comber and Dundonald sit on the traffic-free greenway that runs the whole way into east Belfast.
Sits where the beach meets the foot of Slieve Donard, so a sea swim and a mountain climb fit into the same day.
A working fishing harbour whose quay was enlarged in the 1880s to ship Mourne granite, with a restored cornmill standing at the river mouth.
The linen town on the Bann where The Cut, an 1834 underpass, was driven through the main street to spare the mail coaches a steep hill.
Home town of Titanic designer Thomas Andrews, at the head of Strangford Lough, with a traffic-free greenway running the whole way into east Belfast.
The closest point in Ireland to Scotland, fronted by an early-19th-century harbour and white limestone lighthouse, with the Galloway hills visible across the North Channel.
14 of 14 shown — tap a pin for the place.
Newcastle, down
Newcastle's beach ends at the foot of Slieve Donard, so you can swim in the Irish Sea and look at a mountain you could climb the same afternoon. The town carries a hard history too - 73 fishermen lost in a single gale in 1843, remembered in the Widows' Row cottages - alongside Royal County Down golf, the Murlough dunes and Tollymore forest a few miles inland.
Annalong, down
Annalong's quay was enlarged in the 1880s to load Mourne granite onto schooners, and it still works as a fishing harbour under the highest peaks in Ulster. The restored cornmill at the river mouth is one of the last complete watermills in Northern Ireland, and the high Mournes are a short walk from the door.
Banbridge, down
Banbridge is a County Down linen town on the River Bann, best known for The Cut, an 1834 underpass driven through the middle of its main street to spare the mail coaches a steep hill. The F.E. McWilliam Gallery and the Game of Thrones Studio Tour are the other draws.
Northern Ireland, down
Comber, at the head of Strangford Lough, was home to Thomas Andrews, the naval architect who designed the Titanic, and gives its name to the Comber Earlies potatoes. The town square has memorials to both Andrews and General Rollo Gillespie, and the traffic-free greenway runs the whole way to east Belfast.
Donaghadee, down
Donaghadee, on the Ards Peninsula, is the closest point in Ireland to Scotland – the Galloway hills are visible about 20 miles across the North Channel. Its early-19th-century harbour and white limestone lighthouse front a town that was Ireland's 'Gretna Green' for runaway marriages and now plays Port Devine in the BBC drama Hope Street. The Norman motte above the streets holds the only public camera obscura on the island.
Kilkeel, down
Kilkeel lands the largest fishing fleet in Northern Ireland, and its working harbour under the Mourne Mountains is the reason to come – best at dawn, when the trawlers unload prawns and cod. Above the town stand the ruins of the Old Church of St Colman, built in 1388, and level riverside paths run out to the coast.
Portaferry, down
A car ferry has crossed the Narrows here since King James I granted the right in 1611, and one still runs every half-hour to Strangford. The village wraps a Georgian market house and a working marina, with the Exploris aquarium and seal sanctuary a short walk from the slipway.
Rostrevor, down
Rostrevor sits where the Mourne Mountains meet Carlingford Lough, a County Down village whose forest fed C.S. Lewis's Narnia. Kilbroney Park is the draw, with the 50-ton Cloughmore Stone above it and Ireland's first two official downhill mountain-bike trails on Slieve Martin.
Strangford, down
Strangford sits where the lough narrows to meet the sea, and a ferry has shuttled across to Portaferry from here for centuries. The tidy Georgian harbour is ringed by tower-house castles, and Castle Ward – Winterfell in Game of Thrones – is barely a mile up the road.
Annalong, down
Dundonald, down
Kilcoo, down
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Portavogie, down
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