Newcastle is the place in Percy French's song where "the Mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea". The town of about 8,300 people stretches along Dundrum Bay at the very foot of Slieve Donard, at 850 metres the highest mountain in Northern Ireland, and few seaside resorts anywhere have a backdrop like it. It calls itself Northern Ireland's "activity resort", and for once the slogan is fair.
The town itself is one long main street and an award-winning promenade, with a sandy beach running three miles north to the dunes of Murlough. At low tide there is plenty of sand; at high tide only the pebbles are left. It grew into a resort in the 19th century under the Earls Annesley, and it has a harder history too: in January 1843 a gale caught the fishing fleet and 73 men died, 46 of them from Newcastle. A row of cottages, Widows Row, was built for the families they left behind. In 1910 Harry Ferguson flew one of the first powered aircraft in Ireland along the beach.
Most people come for the outdoors. The path up Slieve Donard starts in Donard Forest at the edge of town. Tollymore Forest Park, with its river, old stone bridges and follies, is just to the west, and Castlewellan Forest Park and its arboretum a few miles north. Golfers come for Royal County Down, laid out by Old Tom Morris in 1889. For the wider range, see the Mourne Mountains.
Newcastle is about 25 miles (40 kilometres) south of Belfast, linked by the Ulsterbus 20. Downpatrick and the Norman ruin of Dundrum Castle are close by to the north-east, and the coast road south leads past the fishing village of Annalong towards Newry and Warrenpoint.