Newcastle is a small seaside resort town in County Down, Northern Ireland, which had a population of 7,672 at the 2011 Census. It lies by the Irish Sea at the foot of Slieve Donard, the highest of the Mourne Mountains. Newcastle is known for its sandy beach, forests, mountains,The town lies within the Newry, Mourne and Down District.
Ladybower Reservoir is a large Y-shaped reservoir, the lowest of three in the Upper Derwent Valley in Derbyshire, England. The River Ashop flows into the reservoir from the west; the River Derwent flows south, initially through Howden Reservoir, then Derwent Reservoir, and finally through Ladybower Reservoir.
Kilkeel is a small town, civil parish and townland in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is the southern-most town in Northern Ireland. It lies within the historic barony of Mourne. Kilkeel town is the main fishing port on the Down coast, and its harbour houses one of the largest fishing fleets around the island of Ireland. It had a population of 6,541 people at the 2011 Census. The town contains the ruins of a 14th-century church and fort, winding streets and terraced shops. It lies just south of the Mourne Mountains.
Newry and Mourne District Council was a local council in Northern Ireland. It merged with Down District Council in May 2015 under local government reorganisation in Northern Ireland to become Newry, Mourne and Down District Council.
The Mourne Mountains, also called the Mournes or Mountains of Mourne, are a granite mountain range in County Down in the south-east of Northern Ireland. It includes the highest mountains in Northern Ireland, the highest of which is Slieve Donard at 850 m (2,790 ft). The Mournes is designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and it has been proposed to make the area Northern Ireland's first national park. It is partly owned by the National Trust and sees many visitors every year. The Mourne Wall crosses fifteen of the summits and was built to enclose the catchment basin of the Silent Valley and Ben Crom reservoirs.
Annalong is a seaside village in County Down, Northern Ireland at the foot of the Mourne Mountains. It is situated in the civil parish of Kilkeel and the historic barony of Mourne. It had a population of 1,778 people at the 2001 Census and lies within the Newry and Mourne District Council area. The village was once engaged in exporting dressed granite and is now a fishing and holiday resort. Annalong Primary School is in the village and Annalong Community Development Association was established in 1994.
The Silent Valley Reservoir is a reservoir located in the Mourne Mountains near Kilkeel, County Down in Northern Ireland. It supplies most of the water for County Down, surrounding counties and most of Belfast. It is owned and maintained by Northern Ireland Water Limited. The reservoir was built between 1923 and 1933 by a workforce of over 1,000 men, nine of whom died during construction.
The Mourne Wall is a wall constructed to enclose a catchment area in the Mourne Mountains, Northern Ireland. It was built between 1904 and 1922 by the Belfast City and District Water Commissioners to enclose a reservoir.
Slieve Bearnagh is one of the Mourne Mountains in County Down, Northern Ireland. It has a height of 739 metres (2,425 ft). Its summit is crowned by two tors with a gap between them, giving it a distinctive shape. The Mourne Wall crosses the summit of Slieve Bearnagh east to west. Paths lead to the cols on either side of the mountain, namely Pollaphuca to the west and Hare's Gap to the east. From the latter, one can also descend southwards to the head of the Ben Crom reservoir.
Northern Ireland Water Limited is a water company in Northern Ireland. Formerly an executive agency within Northern Ireland Executive, it became a government-owned company on 1 April 2007. The company now sits as an Agency within the Department of Infrastructure (DfI). The company provides 575 million litres of clean water a day for almost 1.8 million people as well as treating 340 million litres of wastewater every day, and has approximately 1,300 staff. It is responsible for 27,000 km of watermains and 16,000 km of sewerage mains, as well as 23 water treatment works and 1,030 wastewater treatment works. It cost around £460m each year to deliver water services across Northern Ireland.
Slieve Binnian is one of the Mourne Mountains in County Down, Northern Ireland, 9 km north of Kilkeel. It is the third highest mountain in Northern Ireland at 747 metres (2,451 ft). The summit is broad and flat with rocky tors at the north and south ends, with the Back Castles, impressive towers of granite, in between. To the south-west is Wee Binnian (460m). It lies to the east of the Silent Valley Reservoir and the west of the Annalong Valley. The Mourne Wall also crosses over Slieve Binnian.
Attical or Atticall is a small village and townland in the Mourne Mountains of County Down, Northern Ireland. It is situated in the civil parish of Kilkeel and the historic barony of Mourne. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 153 people. It lies within the Newry and Mourne District Council area.
The Binnian Tunnel was constructed between 1947 and 1950/51 and is located under the Mourne Mountains in County Down, Northern Ireland. The main purpose of the tunnel is to divert water from the Annalong Valley to the Silent Valley Reservoir underneath a number of mountains including Slieve Binnian, after which the tunnel was named.
Spelga Reservoir is a reservoir in the townland of Spelga in the Mourne Mountains of County Down, Northern Ireland. It was formed by the Spelga Dam and sits at over 1,200 ft (370 m) above sea level. It has a volume of 2,700,000 cubic metres and a catchment area of 5.423 km². It occupies an area known as Deers Meadow, and impounds the River Bann, which rises on the nearby Slieve Muck.
Mourne was a constituency of the Parliament of Northern Ireland.
Luke Livingstone Macassey was an Irish civil engineer and barrister, notable for his contributions to public health by improving the water supply in the north of Ireland. In 1874 he was appointed consultant hydraulic engineer by the Belfast City and District Water Commissioners in which capacity he was instrumental in finding new sources of water for the expanding city of Belfast. He proposed the Silent Valley Reservoir project in the Mourne Mountains, the first phase of which was completed in 1901, though he died before work began on the reservoir itself.
Ben Crom is a 526 metres (1,726 ft) mountain in the Mourne Mountains in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is situated beside Ben Crom Reservoir, which is upstream from Silent Valley Reservoir. The mountain is composed of granite. An exposed area on the south west of the mountain shows where the Eocene aplitic granite meets the laccolith top of the older Mesozoic granite ring dike. The summit of the mountain features granite crags which are crossed by basic and feldspar porphyry dikes. The mountain is used for sheep grazing and hill walking.
The Belfast City and District Water Commissioners was a public body in northern Ireland, established by the Belfast Water Act 1840, to improve the supply of water to the expanding city of Belfast. By 1852, the city was suffering a shortfall in supply of almost one million gallons per day.
Baron Kilkeel is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 19 May 2018 by Queen Elizabeth II as a subsidiary title for her grandson Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, upon the occasion of his marriage to Meghan Markle. It is named after the small fishing port of Kilkeel, County Down, with a population of 6,887, in the District of Newry, Mourne and Down in Northern Ireland. On the same day, he was also created Duke of Sussex and Earl of Dumbarton. Traditionally, male members of the royal family are granted at least one title on their wedding day by the monarch.
The Mourne Conduit was a water main which ran 42 kilometres (26 mi) from the Silent Valley Reservoir to Carryduff, near Belfast and was built between 1893 and 1901. This was supplemented by additional pipelines twice in the 20th Century. This system supplied water to Greater Belfast and North Down for more than 100 years. It is labelled as the Mourne Aqueduct in Ordnance Survey maps from the early 20th century.
Ben Crom Reservoir Outflow at the bottom of the reservoir wall
The Ben Crom Dam. Behind the dam is the Ben Crom Reservoir with a capacity of 1,700,000,000 litres. The hill in the background is also known as Ben Crom
View of the dam wall at the Ben Crom Reservoir
