Down Ireland

County Down (Accommodation, Down, Ireland) was ruled by the Gaelic ONeil clan until King James I partitioned the territory between James Hamilton and Hugh Montgomery

Co. Down
Co. Down (Self Catering, Down, Ireland) is a low, fertile and singularly hummocky area. Two-fifths of it are under crops-an unusually large proportion. The continuity of its small well-tilled fields is broken by the fine group of the Mourne mountains in the south, the lower upland of Slieve Croob, in the centre, and by the large land-locked expanse of Strangford Lough in the east. The coastal parts, though low, arc very pretty. In the extreme south, the Mourne mountains descend into the Irish sea and Carlingford Lough, providing beautiful scenery about Newcastle, Warrenpoint, and Posterior. The Lagan, rising on Sleeve Croon, flows across the county and then along its northern edge to Belfast. The Bann rises in the Mourner mountains and runs north-west to Laugh Neagh. Towns and villages are scattered thickly over the county. Newry lies in a deep valley in the south, connected with Carlingford Lough by a ship canal. Banbridge is an important centre of linen manufacture ; Newtownards, at the head of Strangford Lough, specialises in muslin weaving. Bangor and Donaghadee in the north, and Newcastle and Warrenpoint are much frequented seaside resorts. Downpatrick, the assize town, is an old and quiet place. Ballynahinch is an important market town in the centre of the county. A portion of Belfast (Ballymacarrett) lies in Co. Down (Bed and Breakfasts, Down, Ireland).

A beautiful group of granite hills rises in the southern portion of Co. Down, stretching from Newcastle to Carlingford Lough. Slieve Donard (2796 feet) is the culminating point, and over a dozen peaks exceed 2000 feet. The slopes are steep and rugged, with deep picturesque valleys. The main mass of mountains, which lies east of the road that crosses from Hilltown to Kilkcel (the only road traversing the range, and rising at its highest point to 1225 feet), consists of a compact horse-shoe-shaped string of high domes, with a second line of peaks running down the centre of the horse- shoe : thus forming two main valleys, down which run the Annalong and Kilkcel rivers. The latter has cut a magnificent glen : its waters are drawn off near the lower end for the supply of Belfast. Here and there the granite forms lofty cliffs, hung with grasses and ferns, and fantastic pinnacles, cut across by horizontal joints, so that they resemble towers formed of huge boulders built up one above the other. The granite is extensively worked into kerbs and square-setts, and in many places the clink of the stone-dressers hammers mingles with the murmur of the streams. Except near Newcastle and Rostrevor, where the hills descend steeply into the water, a sloping plain several miles wide, studded with cottages, lies between the highland and the sea.

Carlingford Lough, across which Ulster faces Leinster, is a lovely inlet set round with mountains. The town of Warrenpoint stands near its upper end, beyond which a narrow, shallow inlet, now with a ship-canal on its southern bank, leads up to Newry. The village of Rostrevor, beautifully situated in a very sheltered corner, nestles on the eastern shore. From Carlingford Lough the Co. Down coast sweeps in a wide curve round to Belfast. On the way, Newcastle, a well-known holiday

Newcastle and Slieve Donard resort, is passed. North of the shallow bay of Dundrum a narrow, deep channel leads into the land-locked Strang- ford Lough. This is an island-studded basin running north and south for a distance of 20 miles. It averages about 4 miles wide, and is separated from the Irish Sea by a tongue of very fertile land (the Ards) of about the same breadth. The outer shore of the Ards is the most easterly part of the Irish coast. It is low, and on account of its projecting position and its dangerous outlying reefs, is more prolific of shipwrecks than any other portion of the shores of Ireland. North of the Ards the town of Donaghadee, once used as a mail- packet station in conjunction with Portpatrick on the Scottish coast, is passed ; also the Copeland Islands, and then Belfast Lough is reached

Posted on April 15th, 2008 under History. Tags: carlingford lough, donaghadee, Down, gaelic oneill, History, king james I, newry, portpatrick, rostrevor, warrenpoint. RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback.