Newcastle.. that was my great weekend in Northern Ireland. I was actually at home of a very great friend and she wanted to treat me in a Spa Hotel. The decision was the Slieve Donard Resort and Spa Hotel.
So we left in the late morning of a Friday to drive not more than two hours up from Navan in County Meath in Ireland to Newcastle in County Down in Northern Ireland. I enjoyed the way up though it was a good part on the motorway. To find Newcastle and the hotel was again very easy.
The hotel is situated straight at the shore of the sea, long beaches running up and down, in the back the Mourne Mountains green and soft, the hotel itself very old-style looking.
It was initially built in 1896-98 as an railway as used as railway-end-of-line luxury holiday destination. At those times it was one of the finest hotels in the country. And even nearly self-sufficient. 120 bedrooms, already then with own heating systems, Chippendale furniture, Persian carpets, a reading room, hairdresser, billiard room drawing room and cafeteria, weekly dances and more.
In 1972 it was bought together with other five railway hotels over the country by Hastings Hotels. The Spa was built in 2006 only.
Well we had a pleasant two nights stay here. On Friday we tried out the swimming pool and the Jacuzzi. On Saturday we had a long day out to the Giants’ Causeway and the whole coast up, a wonderful sunny day, and on the last day we had some treatments in the Spa. Very expensive at my opinion – hotel and especially treatments. But extremely relaxing and with a great choice for breakfast in a wonderful dinning hall.
Newcastle itself is a tiny town, nice neat streets, wonderful houses, a lot of shops (closed on Sunday nearly all of them) and a Lidl in the former railway station. The beach itself is wonderful, the water was not as cold as I expected but the sand is stony. Though not that easy to walk on. But there is a wonderful beach walk along the whole city.
The town was initially a castle built by Felix Magennis around 1588 at the mouth of the Shimna River.
The surroundings are great, green hills and forests, many little villages and towns around and easy to reach. I would recommend a navigation system as it’s not always very clear where exactly you need to go. Of course a good map-reader at the drivers side will do perfectly as well!
I enjoyed my time in Newcastle a lot, the great stay in such a renowned hotel and the day out up to the north to County Antrim where we have seen also the Dark Hedges. A longer stay would be even better also for the Tollymore Forest Park and other Forest Parks nearby.
Newcastle, Co. Down/Northern Ireland:
For further information:
Attractions in Newcastle
About County Down
Slieve Donard Resort and Spa
