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NEWTOWNARDS |
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Following the A20, the single interesting sight as you near
Newtownards is Scrabo Tower (Easter & May bank holidays and June-Sept
Sat-Thurs 10.30am-6pm; free), whose looming presence dominates the
surrounding area. The tower protrudes from the top of a rocky, gorse-strewn
hump of a hill (a long-extinct volcano), but getting to it after you've
spotted it is quite a circuit - follow the signs to Scrabo Country Park
and you'll arrive in the car park just below. The hill itself is pitted
with quarries used to extract Scrabo stone, employed for all manner of
local building, including Grey Abbey . Up close the tower looks like a
monstrous rocket in its launcher, hewn out of rough black volcanic rock.
It was built in 1857 as a memorial to the third Marquess of Londonderry,
General Charles William Stewart-Vane, in gratitude for his efforts on
behalf of his tenants during the Great Famine. The spot was originally a
Bronze Age burial cairn, probably the resting place of one of the grand
chieftains of the area, and there's evidence of a huge hill fort here
too. Despite the 122 steps to its top, the tower is now very popular
with sightseers, who come mostly for the wonderful views across
Strangford Lough and the healthy, blustery weather that often curls
around the side of the hill. The woodland immediately behind is a
country park open to the public (free access); in contrast to the tamed,
prosperous countryside round about, Scrabo is the only piece of ground
for miles around to feel at all wild.
Scrabo Tower looks down on NEWTOWNARDS , a place strong on manufacture
but unexciting for the traveller. Despite its name, it's an old town,
founded in 1244, though there's little evidence of this beyond the
ruined Dominican priory just off Castle Street. The Scrabo stone Market
House (1765), now the town hall and arts centre, lords it over a large
square filled on Saturdays by market activity. The tourist office is
near the bus station at 31 Regent St (July & Aug Mon-Thurs 9am-5.15pm,
Fri & Sat 9am-5.30pm; rest of year Mon-Fri 9.15am-5pm, Sat 9.30am-5pm;
tel 028/9182 6846).
Two miles north on the A21 Bangor road you'll find the Somme Heritage
Centre (July & Aug Mon-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat & Sun noon-5pm; rest of year
closes 4pm & closed all day Fri; Feb, March & Oct-Dec closed Sat & Sun;
tours £3.50). The re-created frontline trenches are staffed by guides in
battledress who provide a sobering and moving account of the role of the
Irish and Ulster Divisions in the futile World War I battle - 5500 men
of the 36th (Ulster) Division alone were reported dead, wounded or
missing. Across the main road is Ark Open Farm (Mon-Sat 10am-6pm, Sun
2-6pm; £2.90), Ireland's first public rare breeds farm, where you can
compare Irish Moiled and Kerry cattle and marvel at the sheer ugliness
of the Vietnamese pot-bellied pig.
A mile east of Newtownards on the Millisle road stand the ruins of the
fifteenth-century Movilla Abbey . It's a largely disappointing site, but
some ancient grave slabs in its north wall hint at what once was here.
In the cemetery next door there's the more recent grave of James
Francis, a Greyabbey man who fought in the Irish Brigade on the Union
side in the American Civil War. The Brigade suffered heavy casualties
during two of the war's bloodiest actions, the Battle of Cold Harbour
and the Siege of Petersburg, but Francis survived both and later
returned to Newtownards, dying there in 1921.
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