page_title: Castlewellan
section_title: Places of interest
hierarchical_section_title: Castlewellan / Places of interest
caption_attribution_description: English: Old Market House (library), Upper Square, Castlewellan, County Down, Northern Ireland, December 2009
context_page_description: Castlewellan is a small town in County Down, in the south-east of Northern Ireland close to the Irish Sea. It is beside Castlewellan Lake and Slievenaslat mountain, 11 miles southwest of Downpatrick. It lies between the Mourne Mountains and Slieve Croob. It had a population of 2,392 people in the 2001 Census.
  Castlewellan has a wide main street which runs through two main squares lined with chestnut trees. The town was designed by a French architect for the Annesley Family. The Annesley family did not always own the land as they bought it from The Maginess Family., then owners of what is now Castlewellan Christian Conference Centre and Forest Park, and is unique within Ireland due to its tree-lined squares both in the old town and new town as well as its very wide main street. The old market house in the upper square was built in 1764 and now houses the public library.
context_section_description: Drumena Cashel is a good example of a small stone built farmstead enclosure or cashel of the Early Christian period. It is situated 2 miles (3 km) south west of Castlewellan off the A25 road to Rathfriland.
  Castlewellan Forest Park and Castlewellan Lake are situated to the northwest of the village. The Arboretum in the park was begun in 1740 and contains plants and trees from many different countries including Spain, Mexico and Wales; the 'Castlewellan Gold' form of Leyland Cypress – originating from a single mutant tree in the arboretum and widely propagated from the 1970s – was selected by the park director, John Keown, being first named Cupressus macrocarpa Keownii, 1963. The Peace Maze was constructed in the park between 2000 and 2001. Until 2007 it was the longest permanent hedge maze in the world. In the very early hours of 7 April 2007 two youths died in a canoeing incident in the lake.
  Castlewellan Castle, a Scottish baronial castle of 1856, overlooks the lake and the park. Nowadays the castle is used as a privately run Christian conference centre, and is not generally open to the public.
  Legannany Dolmen is 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Castlewellan, near the village of Leitrim, on the slopes of Slieve Croob.
  Goward Dolmen is an impressive megalithic monument 2 miles (3.2 km) from Hilltown on the road to Castlewellan. It is known locally as Pat Kearney's Big Stone or Cloughmore Cromlech. The huge granite capstone has slipped from its original horizontal position.
caption: Old Market House, December 2009
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