Two very different landscapes carry this list. The bulk of it sits in the south of the county, in the granite of the Mournes: Slieve Donard at 850 m above Newcastle, reached by the Glen River path through old woodland to the Mourne Wall; Slieve Commedagh across the saddle at 767 m, with the Brandy Pad running beneath the tors called the Castles; and Slieve Martin above Rostrevor, the most forgiving of the peaks at roughly 45 minutes from the upper Kilbroney car park. The Cloughmore Stone, a 50-tonne glacial erratic dropped 1,000 ft above Carlingford Lough, sits below that summit and is the reason most people make the climb.
The rest runs up the east coast. Ballyhalbert and Burr Point, two kilometres apart on the Ards Peninsula, mark the easternmost ground on the island, and the walk out to the steel ‘E’ is short and flat rather than dramatic. Killough and St John’s Point put you on the Lecale Peninsula, where Ireland’s tallest onshore lighthouse stands black-and-yellow striped at 40 metres.
The Mourne summits want a clear day and proper footwear; the Donard views to the Isle of Man, Wales and Scotland only appear a handful of times a year. The coastal points work in almost any weather, and Crawfordsburn’s step-free trails on Belfast Lough are the wet-day option.
Fifteen summits stitched together by 20 miles of dry stone wall built between 1904 and 1922, now the core of a UNESCO Global Geopark.
Northern Ireland's highest summit at 850 m, climbed from Newcastle by the Glen River path past old woodland to two prehistoric cairns.
The eastern edge of the Ards Peninsula, where a short headland walk, a working harbour and a wartime airfield fill a morning.
The easternmost point of mainland Ireland, quiet rather than dramatic, best at sunrise with terns nesting on Burial Island offshore.
A granite erratic left on Slieve Martin by retreating ice 10,000 years ago, sitting 1,000 ft above Carlingford Lough.
21 of 22 shown — tap a pin for the place.
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Between 1904 and 1922 stonemasons built the Mourne Wall to stitch fifteen summits together, and close to 20 miles of dry stone still runs the ridgelines. Slieve Donard tops the range at 850 m, and the granite peaks now draw walkers, climbers and wildlife-watchers across this UNESCO Global Geopark.
Donard Park, down
Slieve Donard rises to 850m above Newcastle, the highest summit in Northern Ireland. The Glen River path climbs through old woodland to the Mourne Wall and two prehistoric cairns, with views on a clear day to the Isle of Man, Wales and Scotland.
Ballyhalbert, down
Ballyhalbert sits at the eastern edge of the Ards Peninsula, two kilometres from Burr Point – the most easterly spot on the island of Ireland. The pull is the short walk out to the headland and its bronze ‘E’ sculpture, with a working harbour, a low-tide strand and the quiet relics of a wartime airfield filling the rest of a morning.
Ballyhalbert, down
Burr Point, on the Ards Peninsula, is the easternmost point of mainland Ireland, marked by a steel 'E' sculpture in Ballyhalbert harbour. It's a modest, quiet spot rather than a dramatic headland: come for the sunrise straight off the Irish Sea, the disused coastguard tower on the hill, and the terns nesting on Burial Island just offshore.
Rostrevor, down
Cloughmore, the 'Big Stone', is a granite glacial erratic dropped on Slieve Martin by retreating ice around 10,000 years ago, now sitting 1,000ft above Rostrevor with views over Carlingford Lough. It's a short but steep walk up from Kilbroney Park, and the nearby Kodak Corner viewpoint is the real prize.
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Crawfordsburn Country Park packs two sandy beaches, a waterfall under a Victorian viaduct and a set of step-free trails into 3.5 km of Belfast Lough coastline, all free to enter. The village behind it is anchored by the Old Inn, trading since 1614, where C.S. Lewis spent his honeymoon.
Killough, down
Killough's dead-straight main street and its harbour are the work of one family, the Wards of Castle Ward, who built a 13 km road from their estate to the sea in 1740. Out on St John's Point stands Ireland's tallest onshore lighthouse, black-and-yellow striped and unmistakable. It's a quiet village, best taken slowly.
Newcastle, down
The Mourne and Slieve Croob AONB covers 57,000 ha of south Down, from Slieve Donard (850 m), Northern Ireland's highest peak, to the dunes and reservoirs of the coast. It holds the 22-mile dry-stone Mourne Wall, the 5,000-year-old Legananny Dolmen and Tollymore Forest Park, whose oak went into the RMS Titanic.
Newcastle, armagh
Recognised by UNESCO on 26 May 2023, the Mourne Gullion Strangford Geopark covers 1,932 km² of granite peaks, a mapped volcanic ring and the largest sea inlet in Britain and Ireland. Its 'Tale of Two Oceans' spans 400 million years, from the granite summit of Slieve Donard to the Cloughmore Stone above Rostrevor.
Mourne Mountains, down
Slieve Commedagh is the second-highest of the Mournes at 767m, sitting across a saddle from Slieve Donard. The Mourne Wall runs to a small stone tower at the top, and the smugglers' Brandy Pad cuts beneath the granite tors known as the Castles.
Rostrevor, down
Slieve Martin is the most forgiving of the Mourne peaks: a stony zig-zag from the upper car park at Kilbroney reaches the summit trig pillar in about 45 minutes. The pull is less the flat-topped summit than the 50-tonne Cloughmore Stone below it, and the drop to Carlingford Lough and the Cooley Mountains beyond.
Downpatrick, down
Slieve Patrick, a gentle 400-metre drumlin outside Downpatrick, is topped by the tallest statue of St Patrick in the world, unveiled in 1938. The short climb takes 15 to 30 minutes and opens up views west to the Mournes, north to Slemish and, on a clear day, south-east to the Isle of Man. It is best paired with Saul Church and the Saint Patrick Centre nearby.
Killough, down
At 40 metres, St John's Point Lighthouse is the tallest on-shore lighthouse in Ireland, its black-and-yellow tower a landmark at the southern tip of the Lecale Peninsula. The grounds are free and open daily; the two keepers' cottages, run by the Irish Landmark Trust, can be booked for an overnight stay. In 1846 the SS Great Britain ran aground in Dundrum Bay after her captain mistook this light for one on the Isle of Man.
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Ballyquintin Farm, down
Dundonald, down
Ben Crom, down
Slieve Bearnagh, down
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Newcastle, down
Newcastle, down
Dromara Hills, down
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