Town in County Down, Northern Ireland
Newtownards
A Dominican priory, a hilltop tower, a lough full of geese and the street-racing circuit that closed after a 1936 tragedy: Newtownards packs a lot in.
Key information
- County
- County Down
- Nation
- Northern Ireland
- Population
- About 28,000 (2011 Census)
- Known for
- Scrabo Tower, Mount Stewart, Strangford Lough, the Ards TT races
- Famous people
- Paddy Mayne, Edith Londonderry, Charles Stewart, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry
- Football clubs
- Ards FC
About Newtownards
The town that raced cars through its own streets
From 1928, the roads around Newtownards were closed for the Ards Tourist Trophy, one of the great road races of its day. Cars thundered around a circuit of roughly 13 miles on public roads, with the town's streets as part of the track. The crowds were huge, and so were the risks. A crash in 1936 killed eight spectators, and the pre-war race came to an end. Even now, the idea of hay bales and garden walls as crash barriers makes locals wince. Motorsport left a mark on the place, and the airfield on the edge of town, in use since the 1930s, adds to its engine-and-aviation reputation.
A tower built to honour a soldier
Scrabo Hill rises right behind the town, and on top sits Scrabo Tower, built in 1857 in memory of Charles Stewart, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, who fought in the Napoleonic Wars. It is the landmark you see from half of north Down, and on a clear day the views take in Strangford Lough, Belfast Lough and across to Scotland. The hill itself is a hard cap of volcanic rock on top of softer sandstone, and the sandstone was quarried for building. Today the old quarries and the slopes are a favourite place for dog walkers and runners. The Stewarts became the town's landowners in the 18th century, when Alexander Stewart bought it in 1744, and the family left their stamp on the district for centuries.
Twenty-two chairs and a garden of dodos
A short drive down the lough shore is Mount Stewart, the Londonderry family home and now a National Trust property. Inside are 22 chairs used at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, when Lord Castlereagh helped redraw the map of Europe after Napoleon. Outside, the gardens were largely created by Edith, Lady Londonderry, in the 1920s. They are full of unlikely sights, including stone dodos and other fantastical beasts on the Dodo Terrace. The Temple of the Winds, an 18th-century banqueting house in the grounds, overlooks the water. The lough is a feeding ground for huge flocks of wintering Brent geese, which arrive in autumn from the Arctic.
Monks, Scots and a market square
Newtownards dates to 1244, when a Dominican priory was founded here. The ruins of the later buildings still stand near the town centre. Older still is Movilla, a monastic site just outside town, said to have been founded by St Finnian in the 6th century. The town's modern shape owes much to Scottish settlement in the early 1600s. Hugh Montgomery, a Scot who acquired lands in the Ards, turned the old priory into a residence and encouraged settlers across from Ayrshire and Galloway. Linen and textile making would later become a mainstay for the town. The handsome 18th-century Town Hall, built by the Stewart family, anchors the centre. Conway Square, the market square, is still the place to spot a market on market days.
Paddy Mayne, the rugby star who became a war legend
Newtownards's most famous son is Blair 'Paddy' Mayne, born here in 1915. He played rugby for Ireland and toured South Africa with the British and Irish Lions in 1938, then became one of the founding members of the SAS in the Second World War. He won the Distinguished Service Order four times, the original award and three bars, and is remembered as one of the most decorated soldiers of the war. He died in a road accident in 1955 and is buried at Movilla. A statue in Conway Square, unveiled in 1997, shows him in uniform. On the football pitch, Ards FC have been the local side for generations and have won the Irish Cup. The club has a long history in the Northern Irish league.