Mount Stewart - Red squirrel Trail

Start : Mount Stewart reception on Newtownards-Portaferry Road (A20). (BT22 2AD)

(S/E) Start at Mount Stewart reception and make your way to the front of the house via the courtyard. (A)

Make your way through the gate into the formal gardens, pass the Sunk Garden and use the stone steps to make your way down into the Italian Garden. Walk straight ahead towards the black and gold metal gate which brings you into the Lily Wood. Make your way through the Lily Wood until you reach the path.

(1) Follow the path to the left towards the lake. Make your way Westward towards Tir N’an Òg, the family’s burial ground high up on the hill. (B)

(2) Continue around the path until you reach Broadley’s woodland. Continue on the path around the lake towards Mount Stewart house or take an alternative route through Rhododendron Hill.

(3) Finish your walk by returning to the front of Mount Stewart house. (S/E)

Start : Mount Stewart reception on Newtownards-Portaferry Road (A20). (BT22 2AD)

Driving to start : 15 miles South-East of Belfast on Newtownards-Portaferry Road, A20 5 miles South-East of Newtownards.

Terrain : Surfaced pathways and Lawn

Public Transport : Translink

Facilities : Toilets located in the reception area, courtyard, and car park. Gift shop, wi-fi, ice cream shop, tea room, garden shop and baby-changing facilities available.

Dog Policy : Dogs must be kept on leads

Find more information and walk ideas at Walk NI here.

(A) Mount Stewart is a 19th-century house and garden in County Down, Northern Ireland, owned by the National Trust. Situated on the east shore of Strangford Lough, a few miles outside the town of Newtownards and near Greyabbey, it was the Irish seat of the Stewart family, Marquesses of Londonderry. Prominently associated with the 2nd Marquess, Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, Britain's Foreign Secretary at the Congress of Vienna and with the 7th Marquess, Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, the former Air Minister who at Mount Stewart attempted private diplomacy with Hitler's Germany, the house and its contents reflect the history of the family's leading role in social and political life in Britain and Ireland.

(B) Tír na nÓg : In Irish mythology Tír na nÓg or Tír na hÓige ("Land of Youth") is one of the names for the Celtic Otherworld, or perhaps for a part of it. Tír na nÓg is best known from the tale of Oisín and Niamh.
Other Old Irish names for the Otherworld include Tír Tairngire (Land of Promise/Promised Land), Tír fo Thuinn (Land under the Wave), Mag Mell (Plain of Delight/Delightful Plain), Ildathach (Multicoloured Place), and Emain Ablach (the Isle of Apple Trees). Similar myths in the northern Celtic cultures include these of Annwn, Fairyland, Avalon and Hy Brasil.