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The railway from Belfast reached Downpatrick in 1859 and Newcastle in 1869. The line closed in 1950 but re-opened in 1987 as a heritage railway. Steam trains chunter down 3 miles of track to Inch Abbey; see website for schedule of running days. The two locomotives are 0-4-0 "Sugarpuffs" built by O&K of Berlin in 1934/35 for the Irish sugar beet factories: Thurles #1 and Mallow #3. After these were replaced by diesel shunters in the 1960s, a railway enthusiast went to considerable trouble and expense to preserve them for use on a British heritage railway, as he'd been assured — correctly — that they were standard gauge. It was 15 years down the line before he discovered that they were Irish standard gauge of 1600 mm, used to this day by all mainline railways across Ireland. Those locos couldn't possibly run on the British and European standard gauge of 1435 mm.
Cathedral Church of Holy Trinity
This is claimed to have been the burial place of St Patrick in 461, with St Brigid and St Columba alongside. Multiple churches since that time have been swept away: the present Church of Ireland (Anglican) building from 1818 set out to be so relentlessly medieval Gothic that truly medieval material survives only in traces. These include two 12th-century crosses, an 11th-century font, and part of the walls of the 13th-century Benedictine Abbey. The High Cross is a replica: the 10th-century original suffered weathering and was moved to the nearby museum. A massive granite slab was placed over St Patrick's grave in 1900, to curb a fashion among emigrants of taking a handful of soil away with them.
This was the county jail in the late 18th century, and United Irishman Thomas Russell was hanged at its gates in 1803. The museum permanent collections cover an overview of town history, the High Cross, farming and the jail.
If you don't know much about the "real" St Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, you're in good company — most detail is the invention of later hagiographers. The medieval Armagh scholars were especially busy and inventive, since the primacy of their church depended on the primacy of St Patrick. This gallery and IMAX show explores what we know and why he still matters.
Founded before AD 800 on what was then a drumlin island in the marshes. The present ruins are from the 12th-century Cistercian Abbey, which looks to have been small but wealthy. The Cistercians believed in manual labour, farming to support themselves, as well as prayer, abstinence, and above all No damned Irish! The ruins are scenically sited on the west bank of the River Quoile: either approach via A7 Belfast Road or take the steam railway to the Abbey station.
A stone circle 30 yards in diameter with 50 upright stones closely placed. The site seems to have been in use from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age.
Sruthail means stream. It flows down a rocky valley, partly underground, supplying a series of wells with supposed healing or holy properties. Inevitably Saint Patrick gets in on the act, but the site predates him. There are four main wells, and the bath houses you see now are from the 17th century. Pilgrims conducted complicated penances and observances, but in the 19th century they became rowdy so there was a clamp-down. The wells dried up around 2006 when the culverts feeding them fell into disrepair, but this has been remedied.