Newtownards is the main town at the head of Strangford Lough — a busy market town with the dramatically sited Scrabo Tower rising on a basalt hill directly above, and the full length of the Ards Peninsula stretching away to the south. The North Down Coastal Path begins just to the north at Holywood.

A large, well-connected town with good shops and excellent access to Strangford Lough, Newtownards makes a very practical base for the Ards Peninsula and the western Strangford Lough shore — one of Northern Ireland’s most rewarding walking landscapes.