Newtownards, Baile Nua na hArda, Co. Down

Baile Nua na hArda · Co. Down

Working market town at the head of Strangford Lough, with a folly on the hill that runs the skyline.

Newtownards is a working town, not a postcard. Twenty-nine thousand people, a ring road of retail parks, the Ards Shopping Centre at one end and a Wetherspoons in a converted Victorian house on the main street. Belfast commutes in and out by the 5 bus. If you came looking for thatched cottages on the Ards Peninsula, you went past the turn.

But the skyline is the giveaway. Scrabo Tower sits a hundred and thirty-five feet up on a basalt-capped hill above the town, and from anywhere west of the Comber road it tells you exactly where you are. The tower is a folly - built by public subscription in 1857 to commemorate the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, designed by Charles Lanyon and his partner W. H. Lynn, ruined the contractor halfway through and got finished anyway. The walk up is the thing. So is the view down.

The deep history is older than the town. Saint Finnian founded Movilla Abbey on a hill overlooking Strangford Lough in 540 AD - a peer of Comgall at Bangor, a teacher of Columba, the man whose surreptitious psalter copy started the row that ended in Iona. The Vikings sacked Movilla in the ninth century. The Normans rebuilt it as Augustinian. Henry VIII shut it in the 1540s. The cemetery is still there, off the Movilla Road, with a few standing walls and a lot of old stones. It's not signposted the way the tower is. That's part of the appeal.

Stay a night if you're working the Ards Peninsula. Newtownards is the gateway town - every road south to Greyabbey, Kircubbin, Portaferry runs through here, and the bus to Donaghadee leaves from the same station as the one to Belfast. Eat in Conway Square on a Saturday morning, climb Scrabo before lunch, then drive south down the lough. That's the day.

Population

~29,700

Walk score

Town centre walkable; Scrabo Hill is a fifteen-minute drive plus a stiff climb

Founded

Movilla Abbey 540; modern town refounded by Hugh Montgomery 1606

Coords

54.5917° N, 5.6911° W

01 / 09

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 tower

Scrabo runs the horizon.

A 41-metre Scottish Baronial folly built 1857 in memory of the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry. Designed by Lanyon & Lynn. The walk up Scrabo Hill from Killynether Wood lands you at the foot of it; the view takes in Strangford Lough, the Mournes and most of north Down.

Walks & outings → 02 The lough

Head of Strangford, ninety percent of the geese.

Strangford Lough sits at the bottom of the town. About 90% of the world's light-bellied Brent geese winter on the eel-grass flats here. WWT Castle Espie is fifteen minutes south. Mount Stewart is five miles down the eastern shore.

Stories & lore → 03 The market

Saturday in Conway Square, since the 1770s.

The Old Market Cross moved to Conway Square when the Town Hall went up between 1767 and 1771 - Scrabo sandstone, Grecian-Doric, six arches at the ground floor for stalls. The Saturday market still runs there 8am to 3pm.

Stories & lore →

02 / 09

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

The Parlour Bar & Restaurant

Open fire, oldest in town

Bar & restaurant, building dates 1735

Castle Place. The building is reputed to be the oldest licensed premises in Newtownards - formerly the Old Cross Inn. Rebranded as The Parlour in 2012. Small, low-ceilinged, a fire in winter, food on the menu.

The Spirit Merchant

Cheap, busy, big courtyard

Wetherspoons

Frances Street. One of only three Wetherspoons in Northern Ireland. Two Victorian dwellings knocked through; takes its name from Thomas Rountree, the spirit merchant who traded from the address from 1950 to the 1980s. Five hand pumps; large heated courtyard to the side.

03 / 09

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
The Foxes Den	Brunch & bistro	€€	17 Jubilee Road, on the edge of town. Family-run, cooked breakfast and brunch through the day, table-service evenings. Reinvested £50,000 in fit-out in October 2024 - the room now seats 106. Bring an appetite for the Fat Fox Fry.
TT Bistro	Bistro at North Down House	€€	103 Mill Street. Open since 1967, attached to the North Down House hotel. Long lunch-and-dinner menu, roasts on the day they're on, gluten-free options taken seriously. Steady, not showy.
LeWinters	Hotel restaurant	€€	Inside the Strangford Arms, 92 Church Street. International menu, local produce, the kind of room you book for a Sunday lunch with three generations at the table.
Newtownards Saturday Market	Open-air market, 8am-3pm Sat	€	Conway Square every Saturday. Local fruit and veg, fish, meat, brown bread, plants, the rest. The market that's been on this square since the Town Hall was finished in 1771.

04 / 09

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
Strangford Arms Hotel	Hotel, 39 rooms	92 Church Street. Refurbished Victorian listed building in the centre of town. Decent rooms, on-site restaurant (LeWinters), parking. Fifteen minutes from Belfast city centre by car.
North Down House	Guesthouse with bistro	103 Mill Street. Twelve rooms above TT Bistro. Walking distance to Conway Square and the bus station.
Strangford Arms Self Catering	Self-catering townhouse	Two-bed serviced house on the same terrace as the hotel. The hotel runs it - useful for a family or two couples who want a kitchen.

05 / 09

Stories & lore.

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

Finnian, 540 AD

Movilla Abbey

Saint Finnian founded Movilla on a hill above Strangford Lough in 540 AD. Magh Bhile - 'the plain of the sacred tree' - was a pagan sacred site before the monastery went up, which was a common-enough pattern for early Irish foundations. Finnian taught Columba here. The story goes that Columba copied a psalter without permission, the row ended in the Battle of Cúl Dreimhne, and Columba was sent into exile on Iona by way of penance. The Vikings sacked Movilla in the ninth century. The Normans rebuilt it as an Augustinian house in the twelfth. Henry VIII suppressed it in the 1540s. The cemetery off the Movilla Road still holds a few medieval stones.

A folly that ruined its contractor

Scrabo Tower

On 27 February 1857 the foundation stone was laid for a memorial to Charles Stewart, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry. The design - Scottish Baronial, peel-tower silhouette - came from Lanyon & Lynn, the Belfast firm whose name is on half the listed buildings in Ulster. Hugh Dixon of Newtownards took the contract for the fourth design submitted. Costs ran from the original estimate up to £3,010 by 1859. Dixon was ruined. The interior was left unfinished. The walls are over a metre thick, dolerite at the base, Scrabo sandstone above. It is still standing. He is not.

How the modern town began

Hugh Montgomery and 1606

By 1606 the medieval town of Newtown was a ruin. Hugh Montgomery, a Scots Ayrshire laird, took possession that year as part of the Hamilton & Montgomery settlement - the private Scottish plantation that preceded the official Ulster Plantation by three years. He moved into the old castle, repaired the priory chancel as a church by 1607, and by 1611 had a town of about 100 houses on the ground, 'all peopled with Scots'. Most of the surnames in the Newtownards phone book still come from that influx.

Strangford Lough, every September

The Brent geese

Around 25,000 light-bellied Brent geese fly from Arctic Canada to Strangford Lough every September and October - about 90% of the world population of the subspecies. They feed on the eel-grass on the mudflats. WWT Castle Espie, fifteen minutes south of Newtownards, runs hides over the lough. Show up in early October on a still morning and you'll hear them before you see them.

06 / 09

Things to do outside.

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

Scrabo Hill via Killynether Wood The classic. Park at Killynether Wood off the Comber road, climb through beech and hazel, come out onto open hill, finish at the foot of the tower. Bluebells in May. View takes in Strangford Lough, the Mournes, and on a clear day the hills of Galloway. North Quarry steps closed at time of writing - check before you go.

4 km loopdistance

1h 30mtime

Scrabo Country Park short circuit Easier loop from the upper car park if the Killynether climb is too much. Gets you to the tower without the legs. The view is the same.

2 kmdistance

40 mintime

Mount Stewart lake walk Five miles south on the A20. National Trust estate on the eastern shore of the lough - formal gardens, lake circuit, a house full of Castlereagh's papers. Costs in to the gardens; the lake walk is a fair afternoon.

3 kmdistance

1 hourtime

Movilla Abbey graveyard Off the Movilla Road on the eastern edge of town. Ruined nave wall, a scatter of medieval grave-slabs, a working modern cemetery around them. Not signposted from the centre. Not meant to be a tourist stop. Worth one anyway.

Short strolldistance

30 mintime

07 / 09

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Bluebells through Killynether Wood in May. The tower walk is at its best.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long evenings on Scrabo. The Saturday market is busiest. Mount Stewart gardens at full belt.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

The Brent geese arrive late September. Castle Espie the morning after a still night is the show.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Scrabo can be properly cold and exposed; check the gate hours before climbing. Town itself is fine - Christmas market in Conway Square if you time it.

◐ Mind yourself

08 / 09

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

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

Driving in for the retail parks

There are retail parks in every town in this part of the world. Bloomfield in Bangor is bigger. The reason to come to Newtownards is the tower and the lough, not Boots and Currys.

The tower in low cloud

You drove up Scrabo for the view. If you can't see the Mournes, come back tomorrow. The walk is grand; the punchline is the panorama.

Looking for a town centre that isn't there

It's a strung-out market town with a square in the middle and ring-road shopping at the edges. Park near Conway Square and walk.

Mount Stewart on a bank holiday

The car park fills by 11am and the gardens lose their air. Go on a midweek morning or stay until late afternoon.

Getting there.

By car

Belfast to Newtownards is 25 minutes on the A20 in clear traffic - longer at school-run hours. Bangor is 15 minutes east on the A21. The drive south down the Ards Peninsula starts here.

By bus

Translink Ulsterbus 5 and 5f run Belfast Laganside to Newtownards Bus Station several times an hour. The 7 continues south down the peninsula via Greyabbey to Ballywalter. Roughly 40 minutes from Belfast.

By train

No train to Newtownards. Nearest stations are Bangor and Belfast Lanyon Place; bus from there.

By air

George Best Belfast City (BHD) is 20 minutes by car. Belfast International (BFS) is about an hour. Dublin is 2 hours.