The routes take you through a variety of magnificent landscapes
- the wild moors of the Cooley Peninsula, the tranquil islands and
inlets of Strangford Lough, the rolling drumlins of St Patrick’s
Country, the rugged Irish Sea coastline and the beautiful Mountains
of Mourne that sweep down to it. Besides the scenery, there are
attractions and sites of interest in abundance, with St Patrick,
the Vikings and the Normans in succession having left their very
distinctive calling cards in the region.
Occupying the south east of Ulster and the north east of Leinster,
this spectacularly beautiful region has a tremendous variety of
landscapes, with granite mountains, rocky shores and long strands,
forest parks, rolling 
drumlins
and fertile pastures all contributing to the mosaic. The land
has many relics of the past, including castles, chambered graves,
prehistoric and early Christian remains. It has particular associations
with St Patrick, the country’s patron saint.
The centrepiece of the region is the Mourne Mountains (routes
2, 3), a compact and beautiful range of 12 peaks, which, as the
song describes, sweep down to the sea. The Mournes are characterized
by purple heather, yellow gorse, dry stone walls and tumbling
mountain streams. To the northwest are the Dromara Hills (route
3) the smaller but no less beautiful little sisters of the Mournes.
The wild and remote Cooley Peninsula (route 2), rising from the
southern shore of Carlingford Lough, is the setting for The Cattle
Raid of Cooley”, an ancient saga in which the Ulster hero
Cuchulainn confronts the invading 
armies
of Queen Maeve. Slieve Gullion, encircled by the smaller peaks
that make up the Ring of Gullion (route 1), dominates the beautiful
South Armagh countryside. North of the Mournes, St Patrick’s
Country (routes 4, 5, 6), centered around the ancient town of
Downpatrick, is an area of soft green drumlins and dune-backed
beaches where fishing villages lie in the shadow of ancient castles.
This is where Patrick started his mission to convert the Irish
to Christianity.
The Ards Peninsula (route 5), a long finger of land bordered
on one side by island-littered Strangford Lough and on the other
by the Irish Sea bears many reminders of both the Vikings and
the Normans, who in their turn invaded and colonized this part
of Ireland.
