The Mournes and Strangford Lough from Belfast

Editor's note

Two nights on Strangford Lough. At Mount Stewart, the mild lough climate lets plants grow that should not survive this far north; walk the formal gardens down to the shore, tour the house for Castlereagh's rooms, and find the Temple of the Winds. On Mahee Island, Nendrum's three rings of stone walls climb to a church, a sundial and a round-tower stump, and the tide mill on the shore, dated to 619, is the oldest excavated one anywhere. Castle Ward has a Palladian front and a Gothic back, and its farmyard played Winterfell. Walk out to Audley's Castle, or round Temple Water.

Editor's note

One night in the Mournes, and a day on the bike. Start with your wheels on Newcastle beach and ride roughly 75 kilometres through the mountains, one of the toughest signed cycling routes in the north. The route climbs to Spelga Dam, a reservoir more than 370 metres up in the middle of the range, and the Trassey Road heads up towards Hare's Gap, between Slievenaglogh and Slieve Bearnagh. From the high ground above Spelga, look back down over Newcastle and the Irish Sea to where you started.

Editor's note

One last night, at Carlingford, before the crossing home. The greenway runs about 8 kilometres along the lough shore to Omeath, flat all the way, with the Mourne Mountains rising out of the water on the County Down side. Have lunch in Omeath, looking back to Carlingford under Slieve Foy. In the town, find Taaffe's Castle, a four-storey fortified townhouse built around 1520 as a trading depot on the old quay. Out in the Cooley countryside, the Proleek Dolmen's capstone weighs about 40 tonnes. Land three stones on top and, by local tradition, you get a wish. A wedge tomb stands in the same field.