Blog (Castlewellan Historic Demesne) - Visit Mourne Mountains

As part of the Castlewellan Historic Demesne project, supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, signage across Castlewellan Forest Park is being updated. A key focus is replacing the panoramic panel at the Peace Maze with a fresh, high-quality image of the Mourne Mountains.

We’re inviting photographers to submit high-resolution images (minimum of 300 dpi) from this viewpoint by Wednesday 30 April 2025. The selected photo will be credited and featured at the heart of the Peace Maze.

The 24th of January 2025 and the name Éowyn will go down in infamy within the Garden’s history, alongside Storm Ophelia (2017) which also took champions from us. Like many areas in County Down Storm Éowyn gave us a devastating battering.

At this stage in the project the capital works is around 50% complete, with most work carried out to date in the first courtyard and car park. The new visitor information centre, formerly the café, has almost completed its renovation and has a beautiful gable wall showing period features. Once the renovation is completed the next step will be installing a range of interpretation to tell the amazing stories of the demesne.

The Castlewellan Historic Heritage Team are delighted to announce that ten members of our team are trained White Badge Guides. Accredited through the Northern Ireland Tour Guide Association both staff and volunteers undertook the training from January and graduated on 1 July 2024.

The plight of pollinators is well known. Loss of habitat for nesting and foraging has meant there has been a dramatic decline in many of our much-loved species.

Facilitated through the education programme a group of 12 children aged 6-11 completed the John Muir Award (Discovery level). The children involved were dedicated to fulfilling the main four objectives, Discover, Explore, Conserve and Share.

Helen Mark from BBC Radio Ulster Gardener’s Corner, was a very welcome visitor to the Annesley Walled Garden in October. She recorded interviews for two shows which aired on the 21 and 28 October 2023.