Life

Slieve Donard and the Mourne Mountains were made for romance...

...But Valentine's Day hasn't always been a happy affair in the Mourne Mountains, writes Ben Acheson, as he shares dramatic love stories from the area's rich history and folklore

VALENTINE'S Day is upon us again. With no lockdown this year, more people were inevitably swept off their feet on short breaks away over the weekend. Social media is awash with couples enjoying spa days at places like the Galgorm, the Merchant or the Slieve Donard Hotel.

And if the weather holds today, the peak of Slieve Donard may even be in people's plans - a place where proposals are not uncommon at this time of year.

Slieve Donard and the Mourne Mountains were made for romance. With dramatic panoramas and slopes sweeping straight into the Irish Sea, they are also the setting for many folkloric love affairs - although some seem more suitable for Halloween than Valentine's Day.

Maggie's Leap is now a well-known craft beer, brewed by the Whitewater Brewery in Castlewellan. But the name originally stems from a story about a Co Down woman, Maggie, who was a skilled poacher.

One day, after poaching a basket of bird's eggs, she was walking along the coast just south of Newcastle. As she passed the customs office near the harbour, her good looks aroused attention and she was soon being chased along the rocks by some amorous soldiers, until a deep chasm blocked her escape.

As waves crashed violently below, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes and leapt as far as possible. Maggie was amazed when she landed on other side, without a single egg being broken. That chasm is still called Maggie's Leap and can be seen just off the road between Newcastle and Annalong.

A more tragic love story occurred along the same coastline, at a place now known as Armour's Hole. In the early 1700s, local farmer Thomas Armour was increasingly exasperated with his son, Edward, who preferred drinking and gambling to helping on the farm.

But Thomas delighted when Edward proposed to a woman named Mary O'Hagan from Hilltown, on the other side of the Mournes.

Thomas and his son set out to meet Mary's family. But an argument erupted and Edward knocked his father unconscious. Thomas only awoke as his son was pushing him over a small cliff. He grabbed at his son's jacket as he fell, ripping it as he plunged to his death.

Thomas's body washed ashore the next day, still clutching a piece of the torn jacket. Edward was then arrested in a pub, trying to sell his father's horse. He was sent to the gallows in Downpatrick.

But before being hanged, Mary visited him. Anxiety had aged her so much that Edward was stunned into silence. He spent his last days as a mute. After his death, Mary went insane and was committed to an asylum in Belfast. She is remembered with this verse:

"But pity poor Mary O'Hagan the charming girl so fair,

with eyes as blue as violets, and golden hair.

Poor girl she became demented and went quite mad at last,

and died a victim of love, in an asylum near Belfast."

Not all Mourne love stories are so tragic. 'The Half-Brothers' is a tale more befitting of Valentine's Day. It starts on Cove Mountain, named after its cave that is well-known to Mourne enthusiasts and often used to shelter in. It was also a favourite spot of two young lovers, Carrick O'Farrell and Nelly O'Hara.

Carrick was the youngest son of a Kilkeel farmer and Nelly was renowned as the prettiest girl in Co Down. But the famine of the 1840s put Nelly's father in deep debt and he faced eviction. When Carrick asked to marry Nelly, her father refused because he needed her to marry someone rich, otherwise he would be convicted for unpaid debts.

Hearing this, other suitors emerged, including Carrick's half-brother, Dermod. He offered to pay the debts if Nelly married him. Dermod's own wealth was a mystery and locals suspected him of causing shipwrecks by placing false beacons on Slieve Donard's seaward slopes, luring them onto the rocks and taking their cargo. They nicknamed him 'Dark Dermod'.

Repulsed by Dermod, Nelly hatched a plan. She met Carrick on Cove Mountain and convinced him to travel to Dublin to meet a wealthy American businessman who was touring Ireland on a yacht. It had nearly crashed along the Mourne coastline a few months earlier, with suspicions that Dermod lured it off-course.

Carrick had rescued the yacht, towing it to safety with a fishing boat. The businessman then offered Carrick a farm in America, as a reward. Carrick declined, as Nelly would not abandon her stricken father to go with him.

When Carrick went to Dublin to explain his situation, the businessman offered to pay Nelly's father's debts. He also sailed Carrick home, reaching Dundrum Bay a few days later. Carrick then raced to find Nelly but, just as he skirted Slieve Donard, he saw Dermod.

The brothers were soon wrestling on the rocks, with choppy waters beckoning below. Dermod tired quickly and was about to capitulate when Carrick tripped on some ferns. He was left dangling over the edge, clutching at tufts of grass. When he looked up, Dermod raised his boot and stomped hard on his hand. Carrick dropped into the sea, wailing as he hit the rocks.

A few days later, Nelly stood solemnly at the chapel, waiting to marry Dermod. But just before "I do", a man in sailor's clothes surged forward, standing between the bride and groom. It was Carrick.

He grasped Nelly's hand and told his brother that he had come to claim his bride. Dermod ran, while Nelly fainted into Carrick's arms. It turned out that a dinghy from the American yacht had rescued Carrick but he took a few days to recover, and could not reach Nelly earlier.

When Nelly was revived, she married Carrick on the spot. With her father's debts paid-off, the newlyweds went to America and lived happily ever after.

As for Dermod, his body washed up two days later, at the exact spot of the attempted murder. It is said that, on every anniversary, his restless ghost appears to re-live the crime.

Whether fact or folklore, these stories highlight that romance has a long history in the Mourne Mountains. Love will be in the Mourne air again this Valentine's Day, although most couples will hope for less drama and a much happier ending than their predecessors.

Ben Acheson is a former political adviser who most recently worked in Afghanistan for both NATO and the EU. Born and raised in Co Down, he is passionate about the Mournes and the area’s rich history.