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DRUMANESS

CO. DOWN · IE

Drumaness
Droim an Easa

The Ireland's Ancient East
STOP 07 / 07

Droim an Easa · Co. Down

A mill village five kilometres south of Ballynahinch. The mill is gone. The terraces remember.

Drumaness sits five kilometres south of Ballynahinch on the A24, the Belfast-to-Newcastle road, in the civil parish of Magheradrool. It is a small place — a thirteen-hundred-person village strung along a main road, with a primary school on one side, a chip shop and a Eurospar at the centre, and a set of terraced mill houses that are the actual reason the village exists at all.

The mill is what made it. A flax spinning mill went up on the River Cumber in 1850 and pulled a workforce in around it — terraces built for the spinners, a chapel, a school, a football team named after the place of work. The mill ran for a hundred and eighteen years and then it shut, in 1968, and the chimney came down in 1985. The buildings the workers lived in are still there, listed now, and they are the texture of the village.

There is no pub in Drumaness. There hasn't been for as long as anyone wants to remember; if you want a pint you drive the five minutes back up the road to Ballynahinch or the ten minutes down to Castlewellan. What there is, is a chipper on the Crawfordstown Road, a Eurospar with a petrol pump, a primary school, a football pitch, and a quiet streetscape that rewards a slow walk and very little else. That is not a complaint. That is the place.

Population

1,309 (2021 census)

Walk score

Main road, the mill terraces, the millpond — twenty minutes end to end

Founded

Built around a flax spinning mill, 1850

Coords

54.3572° N, 5.8575° W

01 / 07

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 mill

Built 1850. Closed 1968. Knocked 1985.

A flax spinning mill on the River Cumber, once described as a great ship stranded in the countryside. It made the village. When it shut the village had to find another job. It mostly became a commuter.

Stories & lore → 02 The terraces

Listed mill housing, alleyways, a millpond.

What survived the demolition is the workers' housing — listed terraces, courtyards, the laneways between them, and the pond. The chimney is a photograph in the parish hall now.

Walks & outings → 03 The Mills

Drumaness Mills FC, founded 1929.

The football club outlived the mill it was named after. Northern Amateur Football League, Premier Division. When they drew Glentoran in the Irish Cup the local paper said the village would be deserted on Saturday. It was.

Stories & lore →

02 / 07

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
The Village Takeaway	Chipper	€	147 Crawfordstown Road. The village chipper — fish, chips, Southern fried chicken. Open evenings Monday to Thursday, lunchtimes Friday and Saturday, closed Sunday. It is the food option in Drumaness.
EUROSPAR Drumaness	Shop & barista bar	€	121 Drumaness Road. The village shop, with a barista bar and a petrol forecourt. Coffee, sausage rolls, a paper. The de facto morning gathering point.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

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

Drumaness Spinning Mill, 1850–1968

The mill that built the village

Before 1850 there was a townland called Drumaness — Droim an Easa, the ridge of the waterfall — and not much in the way of a village on it. The mill changed that. A flax spinning mill went up on the banks of the River Cumber in 1850 (the founding partners are remembered variously as William Davidson with Thomas Chermside of Belfast, or as James Hurst of Manchester; the Mourne Observer in its centenary piece used the Hursts name and Hursts Ltd ran it for most of its life). It pulled in a workforce, the workforce needed houses, and the terraces and laneways still standing today went up to put a roof over them. The mill ran for a hundred and eighteen years, sending linen thread on reels out to the weaving mills. It closed in 1968 when synthetic fibres killed the trade. The buildings were demolished in 1985. What was once described as a great ship stranded in the rolling countryside is now an absence with terraces around it.

Founded 1929 and still going

Drumaness Mills FC

The football club took its name from the mill and outlasted it by decades. Founded in 1929, they joined the Northern Amateur Football League's Second Division at foundation. They dropped out in 1941, came back briefly in 1950, dropped out again, and returned for good in 1954. They have stayed in the NAFL ever since and have collected four league titles, four Border Cup wins and three Clarence Cups along the way. In early 2026 they drew Glentoran in the Irish Cup sixth round. The local paper ran a piece headlined that the village would be deserted on the day. It was not far wrong.

The Catholic parish school

Christ the King

Christ the King Catholic Primary School sits on the Drumsnade Road, about half a kilometre southwest of the village centre, sharing its name with the parish church alongside it. The school celebrated its seventy-fifth anniversary in recent years — local-paper coverage made the point that for a village this size, three generations of mill families and post-mill families have all come through the same gate.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

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

The mill terraces and millpond loop The short walk through the centre — the listed terraces, the alleyways between them, the pond that fed the mill. Nothing is signposted; it is just there. Best on a dry weekday morning when the village is quiet.

1 kmdistance

20 mintime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar–May

Hedges greening, the back roads to Slieve Croob open up, light evenings start. Quiet midweek.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun–Aug

Long evenings, the football season tail-end, traffic on the A24 heavier with the Mourne run. Stay off the main road at half-five.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep–Oct

NAFL season back in swing, the colour comes up around Montalto next door, the village feels itself.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov–Feb

Short days, the chipper closes at ten, very little reason to be here unless you are passing through or going to the football.

◐ Mind yourself

06 / 07

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 the mill itself

Knocked down in 1985. The terraces around it are the heritage now. Walk those instead.

Looking for a pub in the village

There is not one. Ballynahinch is five minutes north on the A24, Castlewellan ten minutes south. Pick a direction.

Driving the A24 through the village at evening rush

Belfast commuters running south to the Mournes hit Drumaness right after Ballynahinch. Same fifteen-thousand-vehicle problem, narrower village. Time your run.

Getting there.

By car

Drumaness is on the A24 Belfast-to-Newcastle road, five minutes south of Ballynahinch and ten minutes north of Castlewellan. Belfast is forty minutes; Newcastle is twenty.

By bus

Translink Goldline 215 (Belfast–Newcastle) passes through on the A24, with stops on request. Several services an hour at peak.

By train

No train. Nearest station is Belfast Lanyon Place; then the 215 bus.

By air

Belfast International (BFS) is an hour. Belfast City (BHD) is forty-five minutes. Dublin Airport is two hours.