Why Visit the Mourne Mountains?
For starters, the Mournes are home to Northern Ireland’s highest peak. Slieve Donard stands at 850m high and on a good day you’ll have views of many things; Scotlands peaks, the Isle of Man, the Wicklow Mountains and the Donegal Hills.
The Mourne Wall
The Mourne Wall is fascinating feature of the Mourne Mountains. Standing at 1.5m high and is 22 miles long, it passes over 15 peaks of the Mourne Range – a very useful feature for navigating! On 3 of the peaks – Slieve Donard, Slieve Commedagh and Slieve Meelmore – there are shelter towers, made to shelter the Mourne Wall’s hardy builders with “hands like shovels” from the elements. It was purpose-built to keep the man-made Silent Valley Reservoir free from livestock. Construction of this dry stone wall began in 1904 and took 18 years.