County Down Guide (An Dún)
“The Mournemen” - in the province of Ulster. County town: Downpatrick.
The Mountains of Mourne and the burial place of St Patrick.
Down rolls down to the sea in the south-east of Ulster, crowned by the granite peaks of the Mountains of Mourne that “sweep down to the sea”. St Patrick is said to be buried at Downpatrick, and the county’s gentle drumlins, Strangford Lough and pretty harbour villages make it one of the loveliest corners of the north.
Where the Mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea - Percy French's famous line describes County Down exactly, for the granite Mournes rise almost straight from the beach at Newcastle, crowned by Slieve Donard, Northern Ireland's highest peak at 850 metres. This is also St Patrick's county: he is said to have begun his Irish mission at Saul near Downpatrick in 432 and to lie buried beside Down Cathedral. Between the mountains and Belfast Lough stretches a gentle drumlin landscape, the island-speckled waters of Strangford Lough, and the long arm of the Ards Peninsula, dotted with fishing harbours and early Christian sites.
Down has long been prosperous farming and market-town country, its northern edge now woven into Belfast's commuter belt through Holywood, Bangor and Comber. Its people have shaped the wider world out of all proportion to its size: Hans Sloane of Killyleagh founded the collection that became the British Museum, Thomas Andrews of Comber designed the Titanic, and Harry Ferguson from near Dromore revolutionised world farming with his tractor system. Golf pilgrims come for Royal County Down at Newcastle, walkers for the Mourne Wall and Tollymore Forest, and family historians for the graveyards and meeting houses that record centuries of both Planter and Gael.
Cities, towns and villages in Down
- Downpatrick - The county town, where St Patrick is reputedly buried in the grounds of Down Cathedral on the Hill of Down.
- Newry - A cathedral city straddling the Down-Armagh border at the head of Carlingford Lough, served by the pioneering Newry Canal of 1742.
- Bangor - A seaside city on Belfast Lough whose abbey, founded by St Comgall around 558, sent missionaries across Dark Age Europe.
- Newcastle - A resort town at the foot of Slieve Donard, home to the world-renowned Royal County Down golf links.
- Hillsborough - An elegant Georgian village whose castle is the official royal residence in Northern Ireland.
- Portaferry - A harbour town on the fast-flowing Strangford Narrows, reached by ferry and home to the Exploris aquarium.
- Holywood - A seaside town on Belfast Lough famous for its maypole and as the home town of golfer Rory McIlroy.
- Banbridge - A linen-era town on the River Bann whose unusual sunken carriageway, the Cut, was built in 1834 to help mail coaches up the steep main street.
- Warrenpoint - A Victorian resort on Carlingford Lough looking across to the Cooley Mountains, with a summer ferry to Omeath.
- Killyleagh - A village on Strangford Lough dominated by a turreted castle and known as the birthplace of Sir Hans Sloane.
Famous people from Down
- St Patrick - Ireland's patron saint began his mission at Saul near Downpatrick in 432 and is reputedly buried at Down Cathedral.
- Sir Hans Sloane - Killyleagh-born physician and collector whose vast collection founded the British Museum and who popularised drinking chocolate.
- Thomas Andrews - The Comber-born naval architect who designed the Titanic and went down with the ship in 1912.
- Harry Ferguson - Born near Dromore, he made the first powered flight in Ireland in 1909 and transformed world agriculture with the Ferguson tractor system.
- Patrick Bronte - Father of the Bronte novelists, born in a cottage at Drumballyroney near Rathfriland before making his way to Cambridge and Yorkshire.
- Francis Crozier - Banbridge-born polar explorer who commanded HMS Terror and vanished with the Franklin expedition in the Arctic.
- Rory McIlroy - Holywood's four-time major champion golfer, who completed the career Grand Slam at the 2025 Masters.
- Jamie Dornan - Holywood-born actor known for The Fall, Fifty Shades of Grey and Belfast.
- James Martin - Engineer from Crossgar whose Martin-Baker ejection seats have saved thousands of pilots' lives.
Did you know?
- Slieve Donard, at 850 metres, is the highest mountain in Northern Ireland, and the 35-kilometre dry-stone Mourne Wall crosses fifteen summits around it.
- The Newry Canal, opened in 1742, was the first summit-level canal in Britain or Ireland, predating England's celebrated Bridgewater Canal.
- The Antiphonary of Bangor, written at Bangor Abbey in the seventh century, is one of the oldest surviving Irish manuscripts and is now kept in Milan.
- Strangford Lough is the largest sea inlet in Britain and Ireland, and in 2008 its narrows hosted SeaGen, the world's first large-scale commercial tidal stream turbine.
- Hillsborough Castle is the official residence of the monarch in Northern Ireland and hosted key negotiations throughout the peace process.
- Royal County Down at Newcastle is regularly ranked among the greatest golf courses in the world.
- The name Down comes from the Irish Dun, meaning fort, after the great hilltop fort at Downpatrick.
- Tollymore Forest Park near Newcastle, opened in 1955, was the first state forest park in Northern Ireland and later served as a filming location for Game of Thrones.
Places to visit in Down
- Mountains of Mourne - The granite peaks that “sweep down to the sea”.
Surnames from Down: Murray · Rooney · Garvey · Fitzsimons · Magennis · McCartan · Savage · Gillespie · Lowry · McBride · O'Hare · Rice