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County Down · Ulster

Warrenpoint

An Pointe

the Irish name simply means 'the point', as the town is locally called; the English name is believed to come from the surname Waring; the townland it grew in is Rinn Mhic Giolla Ruaidh, 'McIlroy's point'

👥 8,821 (census 2021, Warrenpoint/Burren) 🏔 County Down Source: Wikipedia ↗
The story

A port town at the head of Carlingford Lough under the Mournes and the Cooley Mountains, known locally as 'The Point'. In 1750 it had only two houses and a few fishermen's huts for the oyster season, but by 1837 there were 462. On 27 August 1979 the IRA killed eighteen soldiers at nearby Narrow Water, the British Army's worst loss in a single incident of the conflict.

County Down through the ages →
The history of Warrenpoint

The area was known as Ringmackilroy, the name of the townland still, and earlier as Portyneil, perhaps 'O'Neill's port' or 'port of the lime'. The first reference to Warrenpoint is in 1744, and in 1750 there were just two houses. Its setting helped it grow quickly to 462 houses by 1837, with monthly fairs and a Friday market. In the mid-19th century Newry merchants got a grant for a tidal dock, as larger ships could not pass Narrow Water. The railway arrived on 9 May 1849 and made it a holiday resort, with crowds taking the ferry to Omeath; the station closed in 1965 and the ferry ran seasonally until 2015.

Saltwater baths opened on 8 June 1908. On 6 February 1921 the IRA ambushed a Special Constabulary patrol on Seaview Road, killing one constable. On 15 July 1944 two RAF aircraft collided over the town during a civil defence display, killing everyone aboard, with wreckage falling on Church Street, Duke Street and Queen Street. In 1979 eighteen soldiers died in the Warrenpoint ambush at Narrow Water Castle, and in 1989 Joanne Reilly was killed by an IRA van bomb at the RUC base.

Drawn from the History section of the Wikipedia article on Warrenpoint ↗, rewritten here and adding nothing it does not say; licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Castles and monuments within 15 km

Straight-line distances from the town centre, from each site's documented coordinates.

Worth seeing nearby
  • Faughart · Where Edward Bruce, King of Ireland for two years, was killed in 1318 — on the hill of St Brigid's birthplace.
  • Cooley Peninsula — the Brown Bull · Home of the Donn Cúailnge, the great brown bull Medb marched the armies of four provinces to steal.
  • Knockbridge — Cú Chulainn's death · The standing stone Cú Chulainn tied himself to so he would die on his feet, facing his enemies. Only when a raven landed on his shoulder did they dare approach.
  • Slieve Gullion — the Cailleach's lake · Fionn swam in the summit lake for a maiden's lost ring and emerged an old man — the Cailleach's trick. Even now, they say, swimmers' hair turns grey.
  • Slieve Donard — the guardian in the mountain · Patrick is said to have blessed Donard in the womb and told him he would not die, but would keep watch inside this mountain for ever. On the summit sits the highest passage tomb in Britain or Ireland, built around 3300 BC by people who left no name at all.

All of these are pinned on the Hidden Ireland map.

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