Mournes gondola fallout

Mournes gondola fallout

24 September 2025

THE iconic Mourne mountains are struggling to cope with visitor numbers with its myriad of paths and trails creaking under increasing pressure.

The revelation came at a special meeting on Monday night when senior National Trust officials came under fire from Newry, Mourne and Down Council over the conservation charity’s decision to pull the plug on a £44m flagship tourism scheme.

The Mournes Gateway Project featured a gondola ride from a base station at Donard Park in Newcastle to a proposed visitor centre at the site of a disused quarry on Thomas’s Mountain in the Mournes.

Councillors reprimanded charity officials for vetoing the multi-million pound scheme before an environmental impact study on the project commissioned by the local authority and paid for by ratepayers had been completed.

And there was incredulity that local authority officials and councillors were given just a 20-minute warning in May that the charity would not support the scheme and was confirming its decision in a widely circulated press release.

Councillors and officials believe they were thrown under the bus and are disappointed that attempts to meet with the National Trust to discuss its decision not to grant a lease for the land it owned which was central to the success of the gondola ride before it was made public were rejected.

The Trust insists it had enough information garnered from a number of reports on which to make its decision to refuse the lease and to protect the delicate habitat of the Mournes.

The organisation said the current infrastructure across the mountain range is “not sufficient for existing visitor numbers which are contributing to its unfavourable condition” and it has to strike a delicate balance between protecting the fragile habitat and providing access.

Patrick Lynch — the conservation charity’s South Down property manager, — said various reports confirmed the delicate habitats in the Mournes “are all under pressure” from current visitor numbers which are contributing to its unfavourable condition.

“The current infrastructure is not sufficient for existing visitor numbers,” he said. “It’s critical we have the right infrastructure and plan to manage visitor dispersal to enable us to protect this iconic mountain.”

The Trust’s Northern Ireland Director, Heather MacLachlan, said the infrastructure was not in place to put more people into the Mournes.

She also revealed that a detailed analysis of the path network across the mountain range was in “flashing red status and cannot take any more impact”.

Doubling down on its decision not to allow its land to be used for what was billed as an international standard tourism scheme, the Trust said it “voiced its concerns” from the outset about potential environmental and other impacts with these increasing when the project moved to an “all or nothing gondola option”.

Mr Jonny Clarke, the Trust’s assistant Northern Ireland Director, said the organisation never endorsed or supported what he described as an “incredibly complex project” and had consistently communicated this to the council.

“Our decision not to consider a lease at Thomas’s Quarry was made and based on the expert information available to us and it was not taken lightly,” he said.

“We know that the area faces a number of threats and pressures, most notably from grazing, recreation, burning, invasive species, land use and nitrogen deposition and climate change.”

Mr Clarke said it was clear via a growing body of evidence which included a number of detailed reports that the proposed gondola project “risked placing additional pressures on the fragile landscape”.

He added: “We are very clear that any future development in the Mournes needs to truly serve the long term conservation and sustainable enjoyment of this irreplaceable natural heritage and this is what led us to our decision regarding the lease of the quarry.”

Cllr Pete Byrne said no councillors were “championing” the project or had made a final decision on it and were waiting for the completion of the environmental impact assessment and public engagement process so they could reach an informed conclusion on the way forward.

“We know there was a lot of opposition and environmental concerns,” he continued.

“That’s why we asked for an environmental impact assessment on the basis of an agreement between the council and the National Trust. It was our interpretation that when the environmental assessment was brought back, there would be additional information for us on which to make a decision,” he added.