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By Malcolm Rogers

Malcolm Rogers gives you the lowdown on one of Ireland’s great unspoilt areas, the Cooley Peninsula in Co. Louth.

Your Boeing 737 could be lifting off the tarmac at Heathrow or Manchester Airport round 9 o’clock of a busy Friday morning and by lunchtime you could be having lunch in the elegant first floor dining room of Ghan House, an old Georgian mansion set in the grounds of a Dominican monastery.

While you savour the delights of the succulent Carlingford mussels — served with a piquant garlic and pure creamery butter sauce prepared by chef Jeremy O’Connor — you can gaze out at the Mourne mountains just across the Carlingford Lough. Meanwhile your partner, on the other side of the table, will have an equally spectacular view —gazing southwards at the huge edifice of Slieve Foye in the Cooley Mountains.

Carlingford is without doubt the best preserved and most beautiful medieval village on Ireland’s east coast. And with the new motorway from Dublin to Dundalk, it is little more than an hour from Dublin Airport. But the bustle of urban living will seem to belong to another century — another epoch even — as you wander round the cobbled streets of the village.

The medieval King John’s Castle (haunted, naturally enough) which dominates the harbour, or Taffe’s Castle, which is in fact a fortified merchant’s house, seem to have emerged from a Hans Christian Anderson tale.

In this idyllic setting it is easy to forget this is an area which has seen its fair share of tragedy. It is peaceful now, one of the most tranquil places you could imagine. Nowadays there is more of a boundary dividing Essex from Cambridge than there is between Co. Louth and Co. Down.

There is absolutely no hint of a divide — no customs posts, no security check, and virtually no difference in the landscape. With, of course, the exception of the police stations — in Louth they look straight off the set of Ballykissangel, in the North they make Castle Dracula appear friendly.

The Cooley Peninsula is home to An Táin Bó Cuailgne, or the Cattle Raid of Cooley. This is the national epic tale from the Bronze Age in Ireland (funnily enough, it wasn’t called the Bronze Age because this was the third best time to live in — it was because they made their weapons from bronze. You’re welcome.)

The story, which centres on Queen Medbh’s efforts to nick the great Brown Bull of Cooley, is even said to have inspired the great Icelandic sagas of 1,000 years ago. The area is rich in prehistoric monuments, including several pre-Celtic megalithic tombs. There are a couple of fine examples at Clontygora near Carnavaddy, the mountain which, according to legend, is the burial place of the mastiff Bran, Fionn MacCumhail’s faithful hound.

The Cooley Peninsula has long been an area steeped in spirituality. At Faughart, almost at the end of the peninsula, is the birthplace of our third patron saint St. Brigid, and the townland boasts an impressive grotto and a shrine sheltering in a dramatic beech wood. Nearby in the churchyard on the Hill of Faughart is the King’s Grave — reputedly the last resting place of Edward Bruce, brother of Robert, who made his last stand hereabouts in 1318.

The area has long been a place of pilgrimage. Before Brigid became a Christian saint, it seems the pagan people of the peninsula were worshipping her as a fire goddess. Accordingly, Faughart was a place of healing stones — these are still clearly visible near the Stations of the Cross. There’s a heart stone, a headstone, a fertility stone and whatever you’re having yourself. To this day people treat them as votive stones — they leave small mementoes (including Rosary beads) on these extremely pagan, prehistoric monuments. In days gone by one of the younger priests of the parish would be sent out to collect up all this pagan paraphernalia and destroy it. Nowadays they just leave it.

From the spiritual to the sybaritic, and mention must be made here of Carlingford’s many fine restaurants, mostly specialising in the two abundant, home grown raw materials — Carlingford Lough seafood and Cooley lamb. I can personally recommend the afore-mentioned Ghan House (+353 42 9373682, which throughout the year presents gourmet nights, cookery classes, medieval banquets) and the Oystercatcher (+353 42 9373922), both of which provide superb meals and accommodation.

In all there are more than a dozen fine restaurants and half a dozen cosy pubs in which to drink porter and think great thoughts. It’s so friendly that if you stay a few days you’ll think you’re a local yourself.

Accommodation is similarly eclectic, ranging from the brand new Four Seasons Hotel (+353 42 9373530) to McKevitt’s Village Hotel, Market Square (+353 42-9373116/9373149).

A bit exceptional value for accommodation is to be found outside the town, where there are several exceptionally fine family-oriented bed and breakfasts. Two worthy of mention are Mourne View, run by Lynn Grills just out on the peninsula (+353 42 9373551) and Harry McCarthy’s place The Highlands (+353 42 9376104). First class value, terrific surroundings, and peace and quiet. Further up the mountain Sheila Barry offers a very friendly, comfortable self-catering service (+ 353 42 9376199).

Although wandering about this ancient village from restaurant to pub is an enchanting pastime, you might want something a little more energetic. If so, then The Carlingford Adventure Centre (www.carlingfordadventure.com +353 42 9373100) is the place to head for.

Based at Carlingford Harbour, the centre specialises in sailing, kayaking, canoeing, rock-climbing, abseiling, high ropes courses and challenge courses. The centre is open to all ages and all abilities and you can attend as an individual, family group or part of a school or corporate body. Believe it or not, hen parties have even taken a day’s sport here.

Hill walking is another terrific pastime — and it’s hill walking for softies. Even if you’re only moderately fit and suffer form acute vertigo, the Cooleys provide an excellent day’s walking. The rise to the top of Slieve Foye (1,500 feet) can be gentle and invigorating and from the top you’ll be able to see as far north as the Sperrins and as far south as the Wicklow Hills.

I’d like to say that the last time I ascended the Cooleys, looking down on the narrow fjord of Carlingford Lough across to the Mourne Mountains, the words of C.S. Lewis came to mind. Unfortunately they didn’t — I read them later. The Belfast writer said: “I have seen landscapes, notably in the Mourne Mountains and southwards which under a particular light made me feel that at any moment a giant might raise his head over the next ridge.”

I think we can infer from this that Narnia was fashioned from this very landscape. As I looked down on Carlingford Lough I had found “the garden and magic apple tree which lie to the west of Narnia, at the end of the blue lake.”