Kilkeel

KILKEEL 

( Meaning: Church of the Narrows) the home town base of the Mourne Young Defenders Flute Band is located within the Kingdom of Mourne on the South East coast of County Down in Northern Ireland. The Town takes its name from the old 13th century ecclesiastical building situated in the centre of Kilkeel. Now in ruins, legend has it, that the building was financed by a Spanish Noble Family after their son had been drowned and washed ashore and given a Christian burial by the locals. There are references to Kilkeel being an out-reach missionary /Christian settlement as far back as the 11th Century.

Kilkeel over the past four centuries has grown and prospered, and today it is recognised as the leading town and Capital, of the Kingdom of Mourne. The current 2007 population is approximately 5,400, with the population of the Kingdom of Mourne being 8,500. The area is surrounded by the Irish Sea and Carlingford Lough and the Mourne Mountains and has only three access roads from the rest of the Province.

CLIMATE

The Kingdom of Mourne has a very temperate climate with few frosts and little snow in the winter. The weather in the area is always milder than in the rest of Northern Ireland due to the shelter of the Mountains. The area also has the warmest sea water of Northern Ireland, but it is still cold at five degrees centigrade, a temperature which changes little during the year.

INDUSTRY

Farming and Fishing has always been important, (even today Kilkeel is still home to the biggest fishing fleet in Northern Ireland), and while there are still highly successful firms such as S. McConnell & Son, Cunningham Stone and Mourne Granite Ltd, still engaged in the Granite industry, sadly, practically all stone is now imported, with little or no stone being quarried from the Mournes. Many from the locality are still employed within the Province’s building industry, but more and more are finding employment in factory’s and firms such as Aircraft Seat Production, Tough Glass, and the many fish processing factory units at Kilkeel Harbour.

GERMAN SUBMARINE INCIDENT 1918

In World War One on 17th May 1918 the local Kilkeel fishing Fleet put to sea, to drift net for Herring. Several of the boats made reference to the fact that their compass’s were acting –up and were far from accurate. At daylight on the following morning the 18th May a German Submarine surfaced among the fleet. The German U-Boat Captain ordered the fishermen to abandon their boats, some went into a couple of lifeboat craft and the rest went aboard the fishing vessel the Moss Rose. The submarine then proceeded to sink all the remaining fishing vessels. It was later ascertained that the U-Boat Captain had sparred the lives of the men, due to the fact that in 1912 he as a member of a visiting German Brass/Silver band had toured Kilkeel and he himself had stayed with a Mrs Quinn, Mountain Road in the town. Apparently he had enjoyed himself and felt he was extremely well treated by the townsfolk and no doubt in particular by Mrs Quinn and so he sparred the lives of all the fishing-boat crewmen.

The names of the boats that were sunk were, The Jane Gordon, The Never Can Tell, The Cypress, The St Mary and The Lloyd

HISTORIC SEA LOSSES

There have been many truly disastrous seafaring accidents in the area. In 1916 the ‘SS Connemara’ left Greenore (a port located on the Republic of Ireland side of Carlingford Lough opposite Cranfield). In thick fog the vessel collided with ‘The Retriever’at the mouth of Carlingford lough with tragic circumstances. Both ships sank, and even though the accident occurred in relatively shallow water, 97 lives were lost. There is a memorial stone to those that perished in the Oul Town Graveyard at Bridge Street.

ACTIVITIES

Kilkeel has a number of activities to offer visitors, Tennis Courts, Bowling, Swimming all at the local leisure centre, a superb 18 hole Golf Course in Mourne Park, Sea and Game fishing, Walking and Climbing, Pitch and Put course, Cinema European standard Blue Flag beaches at Cranfield. Pony and Horse riding schools. Kilkeel and Annalong harbours, Silent Valley and Spelga Resevoirs, Greencastle Castle, Hanna Close Cottages, Annalong Cornmill.

Local Restaurants such as The Harbour Inn, and Top Nosh in Annalong and Alfie G’s sports Bar and Bistro offer an excellent array of sea food.

Overnight accommodation can be enjoyed at many B & B’s in the area as well as at the three star Kilmorey Arms Hotel in Kilkeel.