While we of course want you to use your time at The River Mill to read and write, we realise that sometimes you need to 'clear the head' and that a break is required.
Ballyclander Road provides a lovely walk through the immediate area, but there's much to see in the nearby city of Downpatrick, including Down Cathedral, St Patrick's Visitors Centre, Down Arts theatre and gallery, Down Leisure Centre, and Downpatrick Race Course. The city has a wide range of retail outlets, including a large shopping complex, and there are several banks, restaurants and many pubs.
Close to Downpatrick, you can walk the banks of the scenic Quoile River, and visit the ruins of Inch Abbey, the holy sites of Struell Wells and Saul Church, the beautiful Rowallane Gardens, and Castle Ward, where scenes from Game of Thrones were filmed.
The picturesque fishing village of Ardglass, south of the mill, has several popular restaurants and there's a lovely coastal drive to Strangford, where you can catch the ferry across to the Exploris Aquarium in Portaferry and possibly drive a little further to the house and gardens of Mt Stewart. In Portaferry, depending on ferry times back across the lough, you could perhaps see an evening show at the Portico,
In the other direction from The River Mill, heading towards Newry, there's Castlewellan Forest Park the majestic stretch of Tyrella Beach, the ancient Murlough Dunes, Tullymore Forest Park, and of course the Mourne Mountains, which "sweep down to the sea" at Newcastle.
