Ireland (Lonely Planet, 9th Edition) - Fionn Davenport [546]
Strangford is located 16km northeast of Downpatrick. Click here for details of the car ferry between Strangford and Portaferry.
SLEEPING & EATING
Castle Ward Estate Campsite ( 4488 1204; jacqueline.baird@nationaltrust.org.uk; 19 Castle Ward Rd; tent/caravan sites £10/15; mid-Apr–Oct) The entrance to this wooded, lough-shore National Trust site is separate from the main estate entrance (closer to Strangford village).
Cuan ( 4488 1222; www.thecuan.com; The Square; s/d £53/85, mains £9-15; food noon-9pm Mon-Thu, to 9.30pm Fri & Sat, to 8.30pm Sun; ) You can’t miss the Cuan’s duck-egg-green facade, just around the corner from the ferry slip, or the warm welcome from Peter and Caroline, the husband and wife team who run the place. The atmospheric, wood-panelled restaurant here is the main attraction, serving giant portions of local seafood, lamb and beef, but there are also nine neat, comfortable and well-equipped rooms if you want to stay the night.
Castle Ward Estate
Castle Ward house enjoys a superb setting overlooking the bay to the west of Strangford, but it has something of a split personality. It was built in the 1760s for Lord and Lady Bangor – Bernard Ward and his wife, Anne – who were a bit of an odd couple. Their widely differing tastes in architecture resulted in an eccentric country residence – and a subsequent divorce. Bernard favoured the neoclassical style seen in the front facade and the main staircase, while Anne leant towards the Strawberry Hill Gothic of the rear facade, which reaches a peak in the incredible fan vaulting of her Gothic boudoir.
The house is now part of the National Trust’s Castle Ward Estate ( 4488 1204; Park Rd; adult/child grounds & wildlife centre £5/2.50, house tour £2.80/1.90; house 1-5pm daily Easter Week, Jul & Aug, 1-5pm Sat, Sun & public hols Mar-Jun, Sep & Oct; grounds 10am-8pm daily Apr-Sep, 10am-4pm daily Oct-Mar). While in the grounds you can visit a Victorian laundry museum, the Strangford Lough Wildlife Centre, Old Castle Ward (a fine 16th-century Plantation tower) and Castle Audley (a 15th-century tower house), and explore a range of walking and cycling trails.
Kilclief Castle
Square jawed and thickset, Kilclief Castle ( 9181 1491; Kilclief; admission free; 10am-6pm Jul & Aug) sprouts incongruously from a rural farmyard, framed between house and rickety barn. This is the oldest tower house in the county, built between 1413 and 1441 to guard the seaward entrance to the Narrows. It has some elaborate details and is thought to have been the prototype for Ardglass, Strangford and other castles in Lecale.
Kilclief Castle is on the A2, 4km south of Strangford.
Ardglass
pop 2900
Ardglass (Ard Ghlais) today is a small village with a busy fishing harbour, but in medieval times it was a major port and an important trading centre. The legacy of its heyday is the seven tower houses, dating from the 14th to the 16th centuries, that punctuate the hillside above the harbour.
The most prominent is Jordan’s Castle, a four-storey tower near the harbour, built by a wealthy 15th-century merchant at the dawn of Ulster’s economic development. At the time of research it was closed to the public, but may reopen in the future.
Ardglass is on the A2, 13km south of Strangford. Ulsterbus services 16A and 16F run from Downpatrick to Ardglass (20 minutes, eight daily Monday to Saturday, two on Sunday).
SLEEPING & EATING
Margaret’s Cottage ( 4484 1080; www.margaretscottage.com; 9 Castle Pl; s/d £30/60; ) A dinky little flower-bedecked 18th-century cottage (with a modern upper floor), Margaret’s is squeezed between Aldo’s Restaurant and the ruins of Margaret’s Castle and offers luxurious B&B accommodation, with four cosy rooms and an open fire in the lounge.
Aldo’s Restaurant