Northern Ireland’s second ever UNESCO Geopark has been officially unveiled as Mourne Gullion Strangford.
The landscape covers three areas of outstanding natural beauty within Newry Mourne and District Council – Mourne, Ring of Gullion and Strangford Lough and Lecale.
Approved at a meeting of the UNESCO Executive Board in Paris on Wednesday, it is one of only 18 outstanding landscapes around the world to receive the honour this year.
It follows the naming of the cross-border Cuilcagh Lakelands Geopark in Fermanagh and Cavan in 2015.
With a rich geological history across 400 million years, the new park has been described as ‘A Tale of Two Oceans,’ with the dramatic landscape formed by the appearance and disappearance of oceans, colliding continents and ‘tumultuous volcanic events’.
A geopark is defined as a single unified geographical area that is managed holistically, in this case stretching from the waters of Strangford across the Mourne Mountains to the Ring of Gullion.
Newry, Mourne and Down District Council Chairperson Michael Savage, commented: “Everyone involved is delighted that Mourne Gullion Strangford has been awarded the UNESCO Global Geopark (UGG) status in recognition of this work and the extraordinary landscape it praises. It puts us on the world stage and firmly on people's bucket lists of places they must see.”
A project to restore sand dunes at Tyrella Beach near Downpatrick was highlighted as a positive example of preserving the landscape and attracting tourists.
UNESCO Ambassador Laura Davies added: “The best UNESCO designations bring communities, sustainable development and conservation together in real, grass-roots partnerships.
“From small, local projects celebrating local geo-food, such as planting a community orchard in Newcastle, to major landscape-scale tasks like managing erosion on the peaks of the Mournes and the slopes of Slieve Gullion, the UK’s newest Geopark does this in spades.
“My warmest congratulations to all those involved in making it a reality."
After a special day of celebration on the shores of Carlingford Lough at Cranfield, a packed programme of events and activities is to take place across the new geopark this year.
