Attraction in County Down

Castle Ward estate on the shores of Strangford Lough in County Down is one of the most architecturally extraordinary country houses in Ireland, an eighteenth-century mansion divided between two completely different architectural styles on its two principal facades reflecting the irreconcilable aesthetic preferences of its builders, Bernard Ward and his wife Lady Anne Bligh, who could not agree on whether the house should be classical or Gothic. The result, Georgian Palladian on the west front and Gothick on the east, is one of the most unusual and most discussed architectural curiosities in Ireland. The National Trust manages the estate and the combination of the architectural oddity, the beautiful setting above Strangford Lough, the Victorian laundry and the walled garden provides an excellent and varied heritage visit. The estate film connections have added contemporary fame: Castle Ward was used extensively as Winterfell in the early seasons of the television series Game of Thrones, and the Game of Thrones tourism that has developed around this and the other filming locations of Northern Ireland has brought considerable additional visitor interest to a property already well established on the heritage circuit. The tidal wildfowl reserve of Strangford Lough visible from the estate provides excellent birdwatching, and the combination of the house, the lough views and the estate landscape makes Castle Ward one of the most complete and most rewarding National Trust properties in Northern Ireland.

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.

Inch Abbey on the banks of the River Quoile near Downpatrick in County Down is a Cistercian abbey of the late twelfth century whose ruined but substantial remains stand in a tranquil riverside setting of considerable beauty, the combination of the pointed Gothic arches of the church windows, the green grass of the former cloister and the river and marshland of the Quoile providing one of the most quietly atmospheric monastic ruins in Ulster. The abbey was founded by John de Courcy, the Norman lord who conquered Ulster in the 1170s, for Cistercian monks from Furness Abbey in Lancashire. The Gothic architecture of Inch Abbey represents the Norman-Cistercian building tradition transplanted to Ireland in its earliest phase, the pointed arches and the austere decorative programme of the building reflecting the Cistercian aesthetic of simplicity and spiritual concentration. The church is the most substantial surviving building, its west doorway and the windows of the north transept preserving some of the finest Early Gothic stonework in County Down. The natural setting of the abbey on the edge of the Quoile marshes, a freshwater lagoon and marsh habitat created by the construction of a tidal barrier on the River Quoile in 1957, provides excellent birdwatching and the combination of the ecclesiastical heritage and the wetland nature reserve makes Inch Abbey one of the more varied heritage and natural destinations in the Down landscape.

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.