Holiday Cottages In Ards and North Down

Ards and North Down has a small set of self-catering cottages on selfcatering.co.uk, just five at the moment, most of them around the harbour town of Donaghadee. This is the coast and peninsula country east of Belfast, framed by Strangford Lough, the Ards Peninsula and the seaside resorts of the North Down shore.

Best areas and towns in Ards and North Down

Ards and North Down is a council area on the eastern edge of County Down, wrapped around Strangford Lough and the long finger of the Ards Peninsula. The handful of cottages here sit on the coast, with the marquee base at Donaghadee, a harbour town on the open Irish Sea shore.

• Donaghadee: a handsome seaside town with a working harbour, a landmark lighthouse and views out to the Copeland Islands
• Cunningburn: a quiet rural hamlet near Newtownards, set back from the head of Strangford Lough

Bangor, the largest town on the North Down coast, and Newtownards at the head of the lough make natural day-trip hubs, while the villages strung down the Ards Peninsula give easy reach of both the sea and the sheltered lough.

The Ards and North Down coast

This is a county area defined by water on almost every side. The Ards Peninsula runs south from Donaghadee, with the open Irish Sea on one flank and the calm, island-studded waters of Strangford Lough on the other. The lough is a national nature reserve and one of the most important wildlife sites in Ireland, famous for the pale-bellied brent geese that overwinter on its mudflats and for the seals hauled out on its rocks. On the North Down shore, Bangor has a marina and a long seafront promenade, while Donaghadee looks out to the low Copeland Islands, a noted spot for seabirds. The grand house and gardens at Mount Stewart, cared for by the National Trust, sit right on the lough shore and are among the finest in Ireland.

Things to do in Ards and North Down

The lough shore is the great draw. Mount Stewart opens its 18th-century house, its lakeside walks and its celebrated planted gardens, and the waters of Strangford Lough are made for sailing, sea kayaking and birdwatching. Inland near Millisle stands Ballycopeland Windmill, the last working windmill in Ireland and a state-care monument, while the Drumawhey Junction Railway runs narrow-gauge steam trains on the country edge of Donaghadee. In the town itself the harbour, the lighthouse and the old motte reward a slow wander, and boat trips run out to the Copeland Islands in season. Bangor adds a marina, a coastal path and the grounds of Bangor Castle.

When to visit Ards and North Down

Late spring and summer are the easiest months on this coast, when the harbours are busy, the lough is alive with boats and the gardens at Mount Stewart are in full leaf. Autumn brings the spectacle of tens of thousands of brent geese arriving on Strangford Lough from the Arctic, a highlight for birdwatchers. Winter is quiet and bracing, good for a bright walk on the seafront at Donaghadee or Bangor and an empty beach. Outside the summer peak, cottage rates ease and the coast feels like your own.

Dog-friendly and hot-tub cottages in Ards and North Down

One of the cottages in Ards and North Down takes dogs, though none currently has a hot tub.

Getting to Ards and North Down

Ards and North Down lies on the coast immediately east of Belfast, an easy half-hour drive from the city. The A2 runs out along the North Down shore through Bangor, and the A20 leads to Newtownards and on down the Ards Peninsula. Bangor sits at the end of a commuter rail line from Belfast, and the nearest airport is Belfast City, barely twenty minutes away, with Belfast International a little further west. Car ferries to Scotland sail from nearby Belfast and Larne.

Useful links

• Discover Northern Ireland
• Tourism Northern Ireland
• Ards and North Down Borough Council
• National Trust - Mount Stewart

Ards and North Down is a local government district in the east of Northern Ireland, occupying the coastal corner of County Down between Belfast and the Irish Sea. It is one of the eleven councils that make up Northern Ireland, formed in 2015 from the former boroughs of Ards and North Down, and its main towns are Bangor, the largest, along with Newtownards, Holywood, Comber and Donaghadee. The district council has its seat at Bangor and Newtownards.

Geography here is shaped almost entirely by the sea. The long, low Ards Peninsula reaches south from Donaghadee, separating the open waters of the Irish Sea from the broad, sheltered expanse of Strangford Lough, which all but cuts the peninsula off from the mainland of County Down. The lough is one of the richest marine wildlife sites in these islands, a national nature reserve dotted with small islands and ringed by mudflats that draw enormous numbers of wintering wildfowl. Along the northern edge, the shore of Belfast Lough and the open coast carry the resort towns of Bangor and Holywood, backed by gently rolling drumlin farmland.

The area has a long and layered history. Early Christian monasteries were founded on these shores, and the medieval landscape left castles, abbeys and the great planted demesne at Mount Stewart, now in the care of the National Trust. Holywood and Bangor grew as Victorian seaside resorts within easy reach of Belfast, a role the coast still plays today, drawing visitors to its harbours, gardens and sheltered waters.