Recognising the serene beauty, as well as sustainable tourism projects and a quarter century of peace, UNESCO has declared Mourne Gullion Strangford region a Global Geopark.

The geopark includes three distinct areas of natural beauty: The Ring of Gullion, the Mourne mountains, home to the 850-metre peak Slieve Donard, and Strangford Lough, the UK’s largest coastal lough.

This area between Dublin and Belfast is very rural, mostly comprised of green hills known as “drumlins,” woven through country roads. Granite hills, lowland forests, and a rough coastline served as backgrounds for scenes shot for Game of Thrones.