Overview
Slievenaboley has no path to its top, and that is rather the point. This 324 m hill in the Dromara Hills of County Down is reached by farm tracks, a faint trail around a young tree plantation and a run of wire fences you have to climb. What you get for the trouble is a rocky plateau with one of the widest views in the area and, most days, nobody else on it. It sits within the Mourne and Slieve Croob Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and it is the hill to choose when the Mourne Mountains proper feel too busy. The summit is unmarked; the high ground is the rocky plateau beside the remains of an old field wall. From there the Mournes fill the southern skyline, Slieve Croob sits to the east, Deehommed to the west, Slievegarran to the south-east, and on a clear day the Belfast Hills rise to the north.
Walking the summit route
The walk starts at the Windy Gap car park on Slievenaboley Road (postcode BT31 9UF). There is no waymarked trail to the 324 m summit, so the directions matter: head about 150 m downhill along the road, turn left into the first farm track, cross a gate, then skirt right around the young tree plantation on a faint path and keep heading roughly west. From there it is open, sheep-grazed hillside, broken up by a series of wire fences that you climb one after another. The high point is the rocky plateau by a crumbling drystone wall. Because the ground is grazed, dogs need to stay on the lead throughout. The return follows the same line; take your time over the ageing fences so you leave them as you found them. The full there-and-back is roughly 6.5 km (4 mi) and about 2½ hours at an easy pace.
If the fences don’t appeal – and they won’t for everyone – the Windy Gap Pad is the honest alternative. This public right of way is a rough farm track of just under a mile linking Slievenaboley Road to Legananny Road, an uncomplicated walk with no obstacles and much the same country to look at. Early summer is the time to be here either way: May and June bring bog asphodel and orchids, including the common spotted orchid, across the slopes, and autumn turns the bracken and heather to russet.
History and ancient landscapes
The most surprising thing to come off this quiet hill is a man. James Venture Mulligan (1837–1907), one of the great explorers and gold prospectors of colonial Australia – he opened up the Hodgkinson goldfield in Queensland – was born into a Protestant farming family in the townland of Slievenaboley before emigrating as a young man.
The hill itself holds no standing monuments, but it sits in a layered landscape. A short drive away, the Legananny Dolmen stands as one of the finest and most photographed Neolithic burial chambers in Ireland, its capstone balanced on three tall uprights. Nearby, the Finnis Souterrain (Binder’s Cove) is an excavated drystone passage of the kind early communities used to store goods or shelter during raids. For more recent history, the Harry Ferguson Memorial Garden near Dromara remembers the pioneering engineer behind the modern tractor.
Extending your day
Slievenaboley works well as part of a wider day in County Down. Many walkers pair it with Castlewellan Forest Park, about ten minutes south, whose lakeside trails loop past a Scottish baronial castle built in 1858 for the Annesley family. The castle now runs as a conference centre and isn’t open for tours, but its turrets mirror across the lake and the arboretum holds mature giant sequoias and larch. The park has picnic lawns and toilets, both absent on the hill.
For a bigger hill, carry on from the Windy Gap to the Slieve Croob transmitter road: at 534 m it is the highest of the Dromara Hills, the source of the River Lagan, and it has an actual trodden path to the summit cairn. Cyclists have the quiet Lackan Road and Finnis Road nearby, both smooth tarmac with long views of the Mournes and steep, rewarding descents.
Practical information
- Access and parking: Free parking at the Windy Gap car park on Slievenaboley Road. It sits at the brow of the hill with picnic benches and immediate views to the Mournes, and it earns its name – it can be genuinely blowy up here.
- Distance and duration: About 6.5 km (4 mi) round trip; allow 2 to 2½ hours.
- Difficulty: Easy to moderate. The climb is gentle, but you need to be comfortable clambering over low wire fences and crossing uneven, grazed ground.
- Maps and navigation: Irish grid reference J26980 42444, on OSNI Discovery Series Map Sheet 20. Route tracks are on Komoot and MountainViews.
- Best time to visit: Clear days for the view; May and June for wildflowers.
- Facilities: None on the hill. Castlewellan Forest Park has toilets, picnic areas and a full trail network.
- Safety: Accessible year-round, but winter ice on the stone fences makes the crossings awkward, and hill visibility can drop fast, so check the forecast.
Start early from the Windy Gap and pack a flask. Get up before the midday walkers and the plateau, the fences and the whole run of the Mournes are yours alone.