Scenic Point in County Down

Downpatrick is the county town of County Down and the site of Down Cathedral, which contains what is believed to be the grave of St Patrick, Ireland's patron saint, making it one of the most important Christian pilgrimage sites in Ireland and the centre of the annual St Patrick's Day celebrations in County Down. The combination of the cathedral, the grave, the Down County Museum housed in the eighteenth-century jail and the surrounding landscape of the Lecale Peninsula gives Downpatrick a heritage richness quite out of proportion to its modest size. Down Cathedral, substantially rebuilt in the nineteenth century on the site of a succession of earlier churches and a Benedictine monastery, stands on the hilltop that has been a place of Christian worship since the fifth century when St Patrick is believed to have established his principal church here following his return to Ireland. The large granite slab in the churchyard, inscribed simply PATRIC, marks the traditional grave site in a simplicity that contrasts with the elaboration of the later pilgrimage tradition. The Down County Museum in the former eighteenth-century county jail provides an excellent account of the history of County Down from the prehistoric period through to the recent past. The cells and exercise yard of the jail are preserved alongside the museum displays and provide a physical reminder of the harsher aspects of eighteenth-century justice in a building that also housed United Irishmen prisoners following the 1798 Rebellion.

Hillsborough in County Down is one of the finest and most completely Georgian small towns in Northern Ireland, a planned estate town of the eighteenth century whose Georgian square, courthouse, fort and parish church and the nearby Hillsborough Castle, the official Northern Ireland residence of the British Royal Family, create one of the most complete and most elegant historic urban ensembles in Ulster. The town's combination of the Georgian architecture and the political significance of the castle makes it one of the most historically important and most scenically refined small towns in the province. Hillsborough Castle, the official residence in Northern Ireland of the Secretary of State and the Royal Family, has been the setting for some of the most significant political events in Northern Irish history, including the meetings that contributed to the peace process agreements of the 1990s. The castle and its gardens were opened to the public in 2019 following a major restoration programme, providing access to the state rooms and the beautiful parkland gardens for the first time in the castle's history. The Georgian square of Hillsborough, with its courthouse, the Church of Ireland parish church and the surrounding terraces of Georgian houses, provides one of the finest examples of a planned Georgian town in Ulster and the combination of the architectural quality and the political history makes Hillsborough one of the most rewarding and most complete heritage visits in County Down.

Scrabo Tower is a conspicuous Victorian monument on Scrabo Hill above Newtownards in County Down, a 41-metre castellated tower built in 1857 as a memorial to the third Marquess of Londonderry, whose tenants erected it in gratitude for his relief efforts during the Great Famine. The tower stands on the summit of Scrabo Hill, a prominent basalt plug rising above the southern shore of Strangford Lough, and its position provides outstanding views across the lough, the Ards Peninsula and the Mourne Mountains that make it one of the most rewarding viewpoints in County Down. The tower is built from the distinctive Scrabo sandstone quarried from the hillside below, a warm brownish-grey stone that was extensively quarried for building throughout County Down and used in the construction of many of Belfast's Victorian buildings. The quarries on the hillside below the tower are now managed as a country park and provide excellent walking through a landscape shaped by centuries of stone extraction. The memorial to the Marquess of Londonderry was built by grateful tenants during a period when the relationship between landlord and tenant in Ireland was one of the defining social tensions of the age, and the fact that this memorial was erected at all, and at such scale, reflects the exceptional circumstances of the famine years when some landlords provided relief to their tenants while others did not. The tower stands as a document of this period as much as an architectural feature. The views from the tower across Strangford Lough, the Ards Peninsula and toward the Mournes on a clear day provide one of the finest panoramas available in County Down and reward the short climb from the car park.

The Silent Valley in the Mourne Mountains of County Down is a large reservoir complex in the heart of the granite mountain range, a landscape of considerable drama and beauty managed by Northern Ireland Water as both an operational water catchment and a recreational facility open to the public. The combination of the mountain landscape, the great dam at the head of the valley, the Mourne Wall encircling the catchment watershed and the walking available in the surrounding mountains makes Silent Valley one of the principal visitor attractions of the Mournes and one of the most scenically rewarding water authority landscapes in Ireland. The reservoir was constructed between 1923 and 1933 to supply water to Belfast and surrounding areas, a major engineering project in the difficult terrain of the granite mountains that required the construction of a dam across the head of the valley and the management of the entire catchment enclosed by the Mourne Wall. The Wall itself, built between 1904 and 1922 in dry stone technique to enclose the water catchment, traverses fifteen Mourne summits in a continuous circuit of approximately thirty-five kilometres and is one of the most remarkable dry-stone engineering projects of the twentieth century. The views from the dam and the valley above it encompass the highest peaks of the Mournes, including Slieve Donard and Slieve Binnian immediately above the reservoir, and the character of the mountain granite landscape is experienced here in an unusually accessible context. The shuttle bus service operating from the visitor car park to the dam allows visitors without sufficient fitness for the full walk to reach the most dramatic viewpoints.

Slieve Donard at 849 metres is the highest peak in Ulster and the highest of the Mourne Mountains, a granite summit with exceptional views that dominate the skyline above Newcastle in County Down and provide one of the finest hill walking challenges in Northern Ireland. The mountain rises steeply from the Irish Sea coast and the combination of its height, the proximity of the sea and the quality of the Mourne granite scenery provides a summit experience of considerable distinction. The standard ascent from Donard Park in Newcastle follows the Glen River upstream through the lower woodland before emerging onto the open granite moorland for the final approach to the summit. The Mourne Wall, the dry-stone boundary built to enclose the Silent Valley water catchment, is followed for part of the ascent and provides orientation in misty conditions. The summit itself has a cairn marking the site of a cell associated with St Domangard, the saint from whom the mountain takes its name, and the ruins of the cell visible in the summit cairn provide a connection to the early Christian tradition of hermitage on prominent summits that was widespread in early medieval Ireland. The views from the summit on clear days are extraordinary, encompassing the entirety of the Mourne range in both directions along the coast, the Isle of Man, the coasts of Scotland, Wales and England, Lough Neagh inland and the full sweep of Dundrum Bay below. The combination of the sea views, the inland views and the mountain scenery visible from the summit provides one of the widest panoramas available from any point in Ireland. The descent via Slieve Commedagh and the Saddle provides a circular route of considerable variety and interest.

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.

Tollymore Forest Park in County Down is the oldest forest park in Northern Ireland, a 630-hectare estate of mature woodland, rivers and dramatic glacial terrain in the foothills of the Mourne Mountains. The combination of the beautiful Shimna River, the Gothic and baroque follies of the original eighteenth-century demesne and the mountain backdrop of the Mournes creates one of the most atmospheric and most varied forest parks in Ireland. The remarkable series of bridges crossing the Shimna River within the park, each of different design and character, provide the most distinctive features of the forest walk and give the paths through the lower section an architectural interest unusual in a managed forest. The rivers are excellent habitat for dippers, kingfishers and otters, and the ancient woodland remnants within the park support the characteristic woodland birds of mature broadleaved trees. The forest park was one of the principal filming locations for Game of Thrones, the Haunted Forest sequences being shot in its ancient woodland. The access to the Mourne Mountains from the park's upper areas provides the starting point for walks to the summits above Newcastle, completing an outdoor experience that moves from riverside woodland through forest to mountain in a single day.