The Mourne Mountains
A 22-mile wall built to keep sheep out of a reservoir's water now snakes over the highest peaks in Northern Ireland, and the mountains inspired a famous song.
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Quick Facts
- Location
- South County Down, Northern Ireland, rising behind Newcastle and the Irish Sea
- Highest peak
- Slieve Donard, 850 metres (2,789 feet), the highest point in Northern Ireland
- Famous feature
- The Mourne Wall, about 22 miles long, crossing 15 summits
- Wall built
- 1904 to 1922
- Rock type
- Mostly granite, formed around 56 million years ago
- Designation
- Part of the Mourne Mountains Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
- Other notable peaks
- Slieve Binnian, Slieve Bearnagh, Slieve Commedagh and Slieve Lamagan
- Famous for
- Percy French's song 'The Mountains of Mourne', written in 1896
The wall that climbs mountains for fun
The Mourne Wall is the star of the range, and it was built for a wonderfully practical reason: to protect a water supply. The Belfast Water Commissioners wanted to keep livestock away from the catchment area around the Silent Valley reservoir, so between 1904 and 1922 a team of local stonemen built a granite drystone wall around it. It runs for roughly 22 miles and crosses 15 of the mountain summits, including Slieve Donard's neighbours Slieve Commedagh and Slieve Bearnagh. It is about 1.5 metres high and 0.9 metres wide at the base, and it goes up and down slopes that would make most walkers stop for breath. The stone was gathered from the hillsides around it, and the wall was built without mortar. More than a century on, it is still the best handrail for exploring the high Mournes.
Northern Ireland's rooftop
Slieve Donard stands at 850 metres and is the highest peak in Northern Ireland. It rises almost straight out of the sea at Newcastle, so the climb begins at close to sea level, which makes the ascent feel bigger than the numbers suggest. At the top there are two ancient cairns, and on a clear day the views reach across the Irish Sea. Locals and walkers regularly point out the Isle of Man, the Cumbrian hills and the Wicklow Mountains in the Republic of Ireland as possible sights, though it takes good visibility. The mountain is also tied to early Christianity. Saint Donard is said to have lived as a hermit near the summit, and the cairns are linked in local tradition to his name.
The song that sent the Mournes round the world
Percy French, the Roscommon-born entertainer and songwriter, wrote 'The Mountains of Mourne' in 1896. The song is a lament from an Irishman in London, who sees the fashionable city and still thinks of the mountains that 'sweep down to the sea'. It made the range famous far beyond Ireland. The line about the Mournes sweeping down to the sea is true to the landscape, because the hills really do run close to the coast around Newcastle. French's song helped fix the Mournes in the popular imagination as a place of longing and beauty, an image that still clings to them.
Granite, smugglers and a very old landscape
The Mournes are made largely of granite, which is why the summits are rounded and the tops are scattered with tors, rock outcrops that look as though someone has stacked them by hand. Slieve Binnian and Slieve Bearnagh are good places to see these formations. The granite formed some 56 million years ago, when molten rock pushed up beneath the surface. Later, ice ages carved the valleys, and the Silent Valley and Annalong Valley are two products of that work. The range also has a rougher past. The Brandy Pad, a track that crosses the high mountains, was used by smugglers who carried goods landed on the coast inland, away from the eyes of the excise men. It is now a popular walking route.
What to look out for on the hill
The Mournes are a walker's range. The Trassey Track, Annalong Valley and Slieve Donard from Newcastle are among the best-known routes, and the Mourne Wall provides a useful line to follow, though the weather can turn quickly and mist can hide the paths. Look for the granite tors on Slieve Binnian, the old quarry workings in the Annalong Valley, and the stretches where the wall rises steeply from the saddle between two peaks. In the Silent Valley, the reservoir and its dam give a sense of why the wall was built. The lower slopes include heather, bog and woodland, and the Tollymore Forest Park nearby adds a gentler option. Whatever the route, the view of the sea from the high ground is the real reward.
Notable people
- Percy French
- Saint Donard
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