Best Places to Visit in the Mourne Mountains
Written by UK Hidden Gems Editorial
Updated 5 August 2026
The best places to visit in the Mourne Mountains are Annalong River, Cranfield West Beach, Quoile Castle, Cove Cave, Binnian Lough, Ballynoe Stone Circle, Murlough Beach and Moyry Castle.
The Mourne Mountains rise steeply from the County Down coast, a compact range of granite peaks ringed by beaches, loughs and old stone. High in the hills, the Annalong River spills over granite ledges into swimming pools, the little Binnian Lough sits below the tors of Slieve Binnian, and the granite mouth of Cove Cave opens on Cove Mountain, all reached on foot from Carrick Little.
The coast runs from the four-mile golden sands of Murlough, backed by ancient dunes, to the accessible beach at Cranfield near Kilkeel at the mouth of Carlingford Lough. Old stone tells its own story at the Ballynoe stone circle near Downpatrick, the ruined tower of Quoile Castle by its river, and Moyry Castle guarding the Gap of the North in south Armagh.
Some are mountain walks, others quiet coast and country. Here are eight places to visit around the Mourne Mountains.
Annalong River
Photo: Eric Jones via Geograph.org.uk
The Annalong River runs down a broad, open valley in the heart of the Mourne Mountains, and where it spills over ledges of granite it forms a set of rock pools and small falls. The largest pool is deep enough to swim in, with smaller cascade pools scattered around it.
This is bare upland country, treeless and wide, all heather and bog cotton and grazing sheep, with dry-stone walls climbing the slopes and the granite tors of Slieve Binnian over the valley. Getting here is about an hour on foot from the end of the road at Carrick Little, along a stony track past farmland and through a gate into the mountains.
There is no shade once you are in.
Cranfield West Beach
Photo: Eric Jones via Geograph.org.uk
Cranfield West Beach is the western stretch of sand at Cranfield Point, near Kilkeel in County Down, at the mouth of Carlingford Lough. It is a mainly sandy, gently sloping beach with the Mourne Mountains rising behind and views across the lough.
It is run as an accessible beach, with all-terrain wheelchairs on loan and level access down to the sand. A play area, toilets and parking sit close by.
Quoile Castle
Photo: Eric Jones via Geograph.org.uk
Quoile Castle is a ruined tower house on the east bank of the River Quoile, about a mile and a half from Downpatrick in County Down. Built in the late sixteenth century and lived in until the eighteenth, it lost its south corner in a collapse, so a slice through the interior is open to view, showing stone-vaulted ground-floor rooms, gun loops, fireplaces and passages within the walls.
It is a small roadside ruin, cared for as a state monument and seen from the outside. A hoard of Elizabethan silver coins was found on the site in the 1980s.
Cove Cave
Photo: Eric Jones via Geograph.org.uk
Cove Cave is a granite cave high on the slopes of Cove Mountain, in the heart of the Mourne Mountains in County Down, above the upper Annalong valley. It is a rounded opening in a rocky spur with a large mouth, a shallow boulder-strewn interior and water running out from within.
Reaching it is a hillwalk of several miles from the Carrick Little car park up the valley, with a short scramble at the end. It is a mountain feature for walkers rather than a roadside stop.
Binnian Lough
Photo: Eric Jones via Geograph.org.uk
Binnian Lough is a small mountain lake lying in the high valley below Slieve Binnian, in the heart of the Mourne Mountains of County Down. It sits among rough, boggy ground on the walk in from Carrick Little, the first of two loughs in the valley, with Blue Lough further up.
Above it Slieve Binnian rises steeply, its summit ridge topped by great tors of granite that look like ruined towers from below. The lough is a quiet sheet of dark water reflecting the hills, a natural resting point on the way up the mountain or deeper into the Mournes.
There are no trees, just heather, rock and the long line of the Mourne Wall over the peaks.
Ballynoe Stone Circle
Photo: Rossographer via Geograph.org.uk
Ballynoe Stone Circle stands in a quiet field a few miles south of Downpatrick, in County Down. It is a wide ring, around thirty metres across, made of more than fifty low stones set close together like a wall, none of them much above head height.
Inside the ring, toward its eastern side, lies a long low mound of earth and stone with a kerb around it, added later than the circle and holding burials at each end. Outlying stones stand near the western side, framing a kind of entrance.
The circle was raised in the late Stone Age, and the mound within it belongs to the Bronze Age that followed, so the site grew in more than one phase.
Murlough Beach
Photo: Eric Jones via Geograph.org.uk
Murlough Beach is a four-mile sweep of golden sand backed by an ancient dune system on the County Down coast, between Dundrum Bay and the Irish Sea, with the Mountains of Mourne rising behind. The dunes, some six thousand years old, form the largest such system in Ireland and are run by the National Trust as a nature reserve, threaded with paths and boardwalks through dune, heath and woodland.
It is reached from near Dundrum village, with a car park and seasonal toilets. This is a different place from the Murlough Bay on the Antrim coast, further north.
Moyry Castle
Photo: Eric Jones via Geograph.org.uk
Moyry Castle is a ruined early seventeenth-century tower on a rocky knoll near Jonesborough in County Armagh, west of the Mournes, built to guard the Moyry Pass, the old route between Ulster and Leinster known as the Gap of the North. The three-storey stone tower has rounded corners and is pierced with musket loops, once set within a small walled enclosure of which only a fragment survives.
It was put up in 1601 by Lord Mountjoy during the Nine Years' War to hold the pass. The ruin stands south of Newry, visible from the Belfast to Dublin railway, and is freely open.
FAQs
Which places in the Mourne Mountains are reached on a mountain walk?
The Annalong River pools, Binnian Lough and Cove Cave all lie in the heart of the Mournes, reached on foot from the Carrick Little car park, an hour or more up a stony track into treeless granite country. Cove Cave has a short scramble at the end, so these suit walkers rather than casual roadside visitors.
Is Murlough Beach near the Mourne Mountains worth visiting?
Yes. Murlough is a four-mile sweep of golden sand backed by a six-thousand-year-old dune system run by the National Trust, with paths and boardwalks and the Mournes rising behind. Cranfield West near Kilkeel is a gentler, accessible sandy beach at the mouth of Carlingford Lough, with loan wheelchairs and level access.
Where are the oldest sites around the Mourne Mountains?
Ballynoe Stone Circle near Downpatrick is a wide late-Stone-Age ring of more than fifty stones with a later Bronze Age burial mound inside, while Moyry Castle in south Armagh and Quoile Castle near Downpatrick are ruined tower houses of around 1600, both freely seen from the outside.
Conclusion
The Mourne Mountains rise steeply from the County Down coast, ringed by beaches, loughs and old stone. High in the hills, the Annalong River spills into swimming pools, Binnian Lough sits below the tors of Slieve Binnian, and Cove Cave opens on Cove Mountain, all reached on foot from Carrick Little.
The coast runs from the golden dune-backed sands of Murlough to the accessible beach at Cranfield near Kilkeel. Old stone tells its story at the Ballynoe stone circle near Downpatrick, the ruined Quoile Castle by its river, and Moyry Castle guarding the Gap of the North in south Armagh.
From mountain lough to ancient circle, these are the places to seek out around the Mourne Mountains.
