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BRYANSFORD

CO. DOWN · IE

Bryansford
Áth Bhriain

The Mourne Mountains
STOP 04 / 06

Áth Bhriain · Co. Down

A crossroads, a church, and the gates of Northern Ireland's first forest park.

Bryansford is not really a village. It is a crossroads a mile and a half north of Newcastle with a church, a parish hall, a primary school, and the Barbican Gate of Tollymore at the end of the road. The name means Brian's Ford, after Brian MacHugh Magennis, son of a local chieftain, whose son was also called Brian, whose ford was the one over the little stream in the middle of his lands. The Magennis family lost the land in the seventeenth century. The Hamiltons of Clanbrassil got it, and after them the Jocelyns, Earls of Roden, and after them the state.

The whole story is Tollymore. James Hamilton, second Earl of Clanbrassil, was tutored by the English architect and astronomer Thomas Wright, and when Hamilton came home to Down in the 1750s he started planting an arboretum and ornamenting his demesne with Gothic follies the like of which the British Isles had never seen — gate piers crowned with stone cones, a barn made up to look like a church, a Hermitage with a Greek inscription, the Barbican Gate. The Roden family inherited it, sold most of the estate to the Ministry of Agriculture in 1930 and the rest in 1940, demolished the big house in 1952, and three years later the forest opened to the public as the first forest park in Northern Ireland.

What that means in practice is that Bryansford has no pubs to speak of, no restaurant scene, no hotel, and several hundred thousand visitors a year walking past the post office on their way to the river. The car park fills by ten in summer. Game of Thrones did the village no favours and a lot of favours simultaneously. Most people drive in, walk the red trail to Parnell's Bridge and back, and drive out again without ever crossing the road into the village itself. That is fine. The village is not asking.

The thing to do, if you have a morning, is the obvious thing. Park early, walk the Shimna, lose an hour at the cascade, lose another at the Hermitage, come out the Barbican Gate and look at the gate properly because you walked under it without seeing it on the way in. Then drive the two minutes down to Newcastle for lunch. Bryansford is the gateway. Newcastle is the town.

Population

~400

Walk score

Village to Barbican Gate in three minutes

Founded

Magennis lands, granted to Brian MacHugh Magennis in the 16th century

Coords

54.2440° N, 5.9180° W

01 / 06

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The gate

The Barbican Gate is the front door to Tollymore.

A Georgian gothick gatehouse with twin round towers, built around 1780 to a Thomas Wright design. Walk under the arch and you are in the forest. The village exists because the gate does.

Stories & lore → 02 The forest

Northern Ireland's first state forest park, opened 2 June 1955.

630 hectares of Mournes-foothill woodland, an arboretum started in 1752, the Shimna River running through the middle. The Starks found the direwolf pups along this river. The Night's Watch met the White Walkers in these trees.

Walks & outings → 03 The club

Bryansford GAC, six Down championships in nine years.

Founded 1926, disbanded 1954 in the emigration years, reformed 1962. Won the Ulster Senior Club Championship in 1970. A village of about four hundred people that takes its football seriously.

Stories & lore →

02 / 06

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

How the village got its name

Brian's Ford

Bryansford means Áth Bhriain — Brian's Ford. The Brian was Brian MacHugh MacAgholy Magennis of Muntereddy, granted seven and a half townlands here in the sixteenth century as part of the great Magennis lordship of Iveagh. His son, also Brian, gave his name to the ford across the little stream that runs through the middle of the lands. The Magennis estate was forfeited after the Cromwellian wars. The Hamiltons came in, then the Jocelyns. The ford is still there. The Brians are not.

The Gothick Revival, in a Down forest

Thomas Wright at Tollymore

James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Clanbrassil, brought the English architect Thomas Wright of Durham over from Dundalk in the 1750s to tutor his son. The son, who became the 2nd Earl, took the lessons very personally and ornamented Tollymore with the most extensive collection of Thomas Wright Gothick architecture anywhere in the British Isles. Stone cones on the gate piers. A barn made to look like a church. A Hermitage built in 1770 in memory of Wright's friend the Marquess of Monthermer, with a Greek inscription on the wall. The Barbican Gate at the village end of the demesne, built around 1780 — Georgian gothick, twin round towers, trefoils. The big house went in 1952. The follies remain.

The first state forest park

2 June 1955

The 9th Earl of Roden demolished Tollymore House in 1952. The Forest Service took the estate and on 2 June 1955 opened it to the public as the first state forest park in Northern Ireland. The aim was simple: give people somewhere to walk that was not a private demesne. Seventy years on, half a million people a year walk it. The arboretum started by the Hamiltons in 1752 is still going. The redwood the Hamiltons planted is still there too, or what is left of it after a lightning strike took most of it down.

Game of Thrones at Tollymore

North of the Wall

The opening scene of the first episode of Game of Thrones, in 2011 — the Night's Watch scouts riding through the trees, finding the bodies in the snow, meeting the first White Walker — was filmed in Tollymore. So was the scene where the Stark children find the direwolf pups along the river. So was the campfire conversation between Jon Snow and Tyrion on the road to the Wall, near the Gothic Arch. The forest played the Haunted Forest north of the Wall for ten years. The tour buses still come.

Six championships in nine years

Bryansford GAC

Bryansford Gaelic Athletic Club was founded in 1926. It disbanded in 1954 — the village was too small and the emigration too heavy — and reformed in 1962. In 1969 it won the Down Senior Football Championship. It won it again in 1970, and again, six times between 1969 and 1977. In 1970 it took the Ulster Senior Club Football Championship. Not bad for a village of four hundred people. The pitch is on the Hilltown Road, on the way out toward Tollymore.

03 / 06

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Tollymore River Trail The red trail. Out from the main car park, upstream along the Shimna past the Hermitage, across Parnell's Bridge at the ten-metre cascade, back down the other side. Easy walking, tree roots, the occasional gully, generally undefined edges. The one everyone does. Worth doing.

5.2 km loopdistance

1.5–2 hourstime

Arboretum Path The blue trail. A short loop through the eighteenth-century arboretum — the cedars, the monkey puzzle, what is left of the lightning-struck redwood. Better in low autumn light than at any other time.

0.8 kmdistance

20 mintime

Tollymore to Drinns Bridge The longer loop, out past the arboretum and up onto the higher tracks with proper views over to Slieve Donard and the Mourne Wall. Quieter than the river trail by a factor of ten.

11 km circulardistance

3–4 hourstime

Barbican Gate to Bryansford Out the main gate, down to the village crossroads. Worth doing slowly because the gate itself is the thing most visitors walk past without looking up at. Twin round towers, trefoils, Georgian gothick, built around 1780.

500 metresdistance

5 mintime

04 / 06

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar–May

Wild garlic along the Shimna in April. Bluebells through the arboretum in May. The car park is manageable until about eleven on weekends.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun–Aug

The car park is full by ten. The river trail is shoulder to shoulder at the cascade. Come at eight or do not come on a Saturday.

◐ Mind yourself

Autumn

Sep–Oct

The arboretum colour is the reason to plan a trip. Crisp mornings, low light, fewer people from late September on. The best month of the year here.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov–Feb

Frost on the bridges, the river running hard, almost nobody about. The cafe by the car park keeps shorter hours. Wear proper boots. Worth it.

◉ Go

05 / 06

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Looking for a village centre

There isn't one in the usual sense. A crossroads, a church, a primary school, the Barbican Gate. That is Bryansford. The town you want is Newcastle, two minutes south.

Driving into the Tollymore car park after ten on a summer Saturday

Full. There is overflow parking that is not pleasant. Get there at eight or park in Newcastle and walk up.

The Game of Thrones costume photo op

You can pay to dress up as a Stark by the car park. That is not what the forest is for. Walk the river trail and find the spot yourself; the cairn of stones by the Shimna is doing the same job for free.

Looking for the Tollymore House

It was demolished in 1952. The terrace and the lawn where it stood are still there. The house is not.

Getting there.

By car

Newcastle is two minutes south on the B180. Belfast is 60 km, about an hour. Dublin is 130 km via the A1/M1, about an hour fifty.

By bus

Translink Ulsterbus 405 runs Newcastle–Hilltown via Bryansford a few times a day. For most visitors it is easier to bus to Newcastle (Goldliner 20 from Belfast Europa) and either taxi up or walk the 25 minutes through Donard Park and round.

By train

No train. The nearest station is Newry (40 km) or Belfast (60 km), then bus.

By air

Belfast International is 90 minutes by car. Belfast City is 75 minutes. Dublin is two hours.