Things to do in Ards and North Down District Council

Strangford Lough in County Down is the largest sea lough in the British Isles, a complex inlet of approximately 150 square kilometres connected to the Irish Sea through the Narrows, a tidal strait only about 500 metres wide at its narrowest point through which 350 million tonnes of water pour with each tidal cycle, creating some of the most powerful tidal currents in Northern Ireland. This dynamic tidal energy, combined with the sheltered waters of the lough itself, has created an environment of extraordinary ecological richness that has been recognised with multiple designations at national and international level. The lough contains over 100 islands and hosts one of the largest populations of common seals in Ireland, with grey seals also present in smaller numbers. The tidal mudflats and saltmarsh habitats support enormous numbers of wintering and migrating wading birds, including internationally significant populations of brent geese that arrive from the Arctic each autumn and spend the winter grazing on the eel-grass beds within the lough. The clear, clean waters of the lough support exceptional marine biodiversity including species more usually associated with offshore reef habitats. In 2008 the world's first commercial tidal energy turbine began generating electricity from the tidal currents in the Narrows, a demonstration project that reflected both the exceptional power available here and the growing interest in renewable energy from tidal currents. The turbine operated for several years before being decommissioned, but the project established Strangford Lough as a location of international significance for marine renewable energy research. The shoreline of the lough is richly layered with history. Castle Ward, a National Trust property near Strangford village with its extraordinary schizophrenic architecture reflecting the disagreement of its 18th-century owners between Gothic and Classical styles, is one of the most visited historic houses in Northern Ireland and has gained additional fame as a filming location for Game of Thrones. Nendrum Monastery on Mahee Island preserves the remains of an important early Christian monastic site that was established here in the fifth century.

Kirkistown Castle is a tower house ruin situated on the Ards Peninsula in County Down, Northern Ireland. Despite the database entry noting "Northern / Midlands England" as the approximate region, the coordinates 54.44398, -5.46564 and the postcode BT22 1JB place this site firmly in County Down, Northern Ireland — the BT postcode prefix is exclusive to Northern Ireland, and the Ards Peninsula is one of the most historically rich stretches of coastline in the province. The castle is a scheduled historic monument and represents a fine, if ruinous, example of the Plantation-era tower houses that were erected across Ulster during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It is worth visiting both for its architectural character and for the sense of layered history it imparts, standing as it does in a quiet rural landscape that has changed surprisingly little around it. The castle is believed to have been built in the early seventeenth century, most likely around 1622, by Roland Savage, a member of the powerful and ancient Savage family who held extensive lands across the Ards Peninsula throughout the medieval and early modern periods. The Savages were one of the great Anglo-Norman dynasties of Ulster, arriving in Ireland in the wake of the Norman conquest and establishing themselves as lords of the Ards from the thirteenth century onward. Kirkistown was one of several strongholds they constructed or occupied across the peninsula, and the tower house here reflects the turbulent conditions of the period — the need to combine domestic function with defensibility in a landscape marked by political instability, land disputes, and the upheavals of the Ulster Plantation. The structure fell into ruin over the following centuries as the strategic and residential importance of such tower houses declined. Physically, Kirkistown Castle presents as a compact rectangular tower house, rising to a modest but commanding height above the surrounding flat farmland. The walls are of rough-cut stone, heavily weathered and patched in places with mortar, and the overall impression is one of solidity rather than elegance. The tower retains much of its original masonry, and visitors can observe the characteristic features of the form: narrow slit windows, corbelling details, and the remains of internal floor levels visible in the fabric of the walls. Standing close to the structure, one is struck by the thickness of the walls and the sense of enclosure they create. On a typical County Down day — breezy, often overcast, with the smell of grass and sea air carrying across the fields — the castle has a pleasingly austere and melancholy presence. The surrounding landscape is quintessentially that of the inner Ards Peninsula: gently undulating farmland, hedgerows, quiet country roads, and the ever-present suggestion of the sea not far distant. Strangford Lough lies to the west, one of Europe's most important marine nature reserves and a site of extraordinary biodiversity, while the Irish Sea coastline to the east is accessible within a short drive. The nearby village of Kircubbin is the closest settlement of any size, offering basic amenities. The area around Kirkistown is also associated with Kirkistown Circuit, a motor racing track of some note that operates on a former wartime airfield nearby, which adds an unexpected layer of character to what might otherwise seem an entirely pastoral setting. For those planning a visit, Kirkistown Castle is accessible by car via the rural road network of the Ards Peninsula, with the site lying close to the road and visible from it. There is no significant visitor infrastructure — no car park, café, or interpretive signage of the kind found at more heavily promoted heritage sites — and the castle is best approached as a self-guided stop for those with an interest in vernacular architecture or Plantation history. The monument is in State Care under the Historic Environment Division of the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland, which means it benefits from some degree of maintenance and protection. The best time to visit is during the spring or summer months when the days are longer and the weather on the peninsula, while rarely warm, is at its most manageable. Access is generally open, but visitors should be aware that the interior of ruined tower houses can present uneven surfaces and falling masonry hazards. One of the more fascinating aspects of Kirkistown Castle is its connection to the long arc of Savage family dominance over the Ards, a dynasty whose influence stretched over four centuries and left a remarkable number of castles and strongholds scattered across the peninsula — so many, in fact, that a local saying once held that there was a Savage castle for every week of the year. This network of fortified houses speaks to the extraordinary degree to which a single family could imprint itself upon a landscape, and Kirkistown is one of the surviving physical reminders of that now largely vanished world. For anyone travelling the Ards Peninsula and engaging with its rich and sometimes melancholy heritage, the castle offers a quietly compelling stop — understated in its presentation but resonant in what it represents.

Portaferry Castle is a small sixteenth-century tower house in the centre of Portaferry town at the southern end of the Ards Peninsula in County Down, controlling the narrows of the Strangford Lough entrance where the powerful tidal currents between the lough and the open sea create one of the most unusual water habitats in Ireland. The castle runs alongside Castle Street leading from The Square to the ferry slipway, giving it a prominent urban position in this picturesque town. The waters of Strangford Narrows visible from the castle are a marine nature reserve of international importance. Portaferry is home to Exploris Aquarium, Northern Ireland's only public aquarium, and the short ferry crossing to Strangford village on the opposite shore provides access to the western lough shore and the Lecale Peninsula.

Sketrick Castle is a ruined fifteenth-century tower house on an island in Strangford Lough near Ardmillan in County Down, Northern Ireland, one of the characteristic lough-shore and island castles that punctuate the extraordinary landscape of this great tidal inlet. The castle was associated with the Savage family of the Ards Peninsula and controlled movement across this part of the lough. The surrounding waters of Strangford Lough provide one of the most important marine and coastal habitats in Ireland, supporting internationally significant populations of brent geese, waders, wildfowl and the diverse marine life of a tidal lough system. The heritage landscape of Strangford Lough shores, combining early Christian sites, Norman earthworks, plantation-era settlements and Victorian estate buildings, makes this one of the richest historical landscapes in Northern Ireland.

Mount Stewart on the shores of Strangford Lough in County Down is one of the finest gardens in Ireland and one of the most remarkable National Trust garden properties in the British Isles, a garden of approximately 30 acres created from 1921 onward by Edith, Marchioness of Londonderry. The mild Strangford Lough microclimate allows cultivation of tender plants from the Southern Hemisphere and the Mediterranean impossible in most of Northern Ireland. The formal gardens include the Spanish Garden, the Italian Garden, the Sunken Garden, the Mairi Garden and the Shamrock Garden, each with distinct character and planting reflecting the warmth and ambition of their creator's horticultural vision. The mildness of the microclimate creates the diversity of plant material that gives the garden its remarkable variety. The woodland walks around the lake provide a more naturalistic complement to the formal gardens, the mature trees and the lakeside setting of Strangford Lough creating a landscape of considerable natural quality. The combination of the formal and informal gardens with the extraordinary lough setting makes Mount Stewart one of the most rewarding garden visits in Ulster.

Grey Abbey on the shores of Strangford Lough in County Down is the finest and most completely preserved Cistercian abbey ruin in Ireland, a monastery of the twelfth century founded in 1193 by Affreca, daughter of the King of Man and wife of John de Courcy, whose substantial church and cloister buildings survive in unusually good condition above the beautiful setting of the lough shore. The abbey is managed by Historic Environment Northern Ireland and the combination of the architectural quality of the ruins, the medieval physic garden and the surrounding Strangford Lough landscape creates one of the most rewarding monastic heritage visits in Ulster. The abbey church at Grey Abbey is one of the finest examples of early Gothic architecture in Ireland, its pointed arches and ribbed vaulting representing the arrival of the Gothic style in Ireland in a building of considerable ambition and quality for its remote lough shore setting. The west doorway of the church, with its elaborate mouldings and decoration, is one of the finest pieces of medieval stonework in Northern Ireland and demonstrates the architectural ambition of the founding community's building programme. The reconstructed physic garden adjacent to the ruins provides a creative interpretation of the medicinal plants that a Cistercian community would have cultivated for the treatment of the sick in their infirmary, and the combination of the garden, the ruins and the lough shore setting creates a visit of considerable variety and historical depth.

Quintin Castle is a private castle on the Ards Peninsula in County Down, Northern Ireland, one of the very few Anglo-Norman castles in Ulster to have been in continuous occupation by the same family, the Savage family, since the Norman period. The Savages were among the earliest Anglo-Norman settlers in east Ulster, arriving with John de Courcy's forces in the 1170s and establishing themselves as lords of the Ards Peninsula for centuries afterward. The castle incorporates medieval fabric within a substantially rebuilt and extended building of later centuries, and the long continuity of occupation by one family gives it an unusual historical depth. The Ards Peninsula location provides access to the beautiful east shore of Strangford Lough, one of the most important tidal inlets in Ireland for both natural heritage and early Christian history.