Mourne Gullion Strangford Aspiring UNESCO Global Geopark

Mourne Gullion and Strangford aspiring UNESCO Global Geopark takes in the breathtaking beauty of the Ring of Gullion, the Mourne Mountains and Strangford & Lecale. Its spectacular beauty has been forged by nature and provides a stunning backdrop to remarkable people and places. This dramatic and thriving landscape is where people live and work every day, acting as a catalyst for vibrant community tourism with the potential to develop a sustainable future for the region through this world-class tourism designation. The Mourne and Gullion complexes are part of the British and Irish Igneous Province, which is itself part of the North Atlantic Igneous Province. They all have contacts with the Silurian/Devonian end-Iapetus lithologies making this region the only location on the island of Ireland where it is possible to tell the story of the closing of the Iapetus Ocean and the opening of the Atlantic Ocean in the same place. There are currently no other UNESCO Global Geoparks with similar characteristics. One of the other geological highlights is the more recent glacial history that is found in the Strangford and Lecale of the proposed Geopark. The best examples of this are found along the Ballyhornan coastline which is a beautiful locality even without knowing anything about its geological history and in particular, the spectacular Quaternary geology on display at Killard Point. This designated site records the events and processes that operated in this area from 15,000 to 13,000 years ago during the closing stages of the final glaciation to affect the island of Ireland, the Midlandian. The site is of such importance that this short period has won a place in the scientific literature as the Killard Point Event.

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