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Heading north from Termonfeckin, you pass through the glum beach resort of CLOGHERHEAD , from where the road takes you north to PORT ORIEL , a tiny fishing harbour tucked hard into the coast's rockface that enjoys good mackerel fishing off the pier in summer. It's only a little way beyond here, as you approach the village of ANAGASSAN ( Ath na gCastel n "Ford of the Paths") that the signposts designating the "scenic route" (the coastal road) begin to earn their keep, with the mountains of Cooley and Mourne, one range south of the border, the other north, spectacularly silhouetted against the sky. The Glyde Inn in Annagassan has food (of sorts) and is a nice reclusive spot to take time out for "a small drop of medicine". There's little else to see around the village, although local archeological explorations have provoked controversy by claiming to have revealed the first permanent Norse settlement in Ireland, predating even Dublin. Continuing northwards across the hump-back stone bridge, you've a watercolourist's idyll of rowing boats laid out along the bulging ramparts of the canalized river as it meets the sea. Inland from these villages, just off the M1 motorway on the N1 road, lies the village of DUNLEER , formerly a traditional stop on the Belfast to Dublin route. The town has little to offer in terms of tourist attractions, except for White River Mill , a traditional water mill, where wheat has been ground for at least three hundred years (enquire at the house beside the mill to view). B&B accommodation is available at the red-bricked Bramble Lodge (tel 041/685 1565, mcondra@esatclear.ie ; GBP33-40/?41.90-50.79). For food you could follow the locals to the Grove restaurant where you can get a substantial meal for less than a fiver. Travel a further five miles north on the N1 and you will arrive at CASTLEBELLINGHAM . Despite the main Dublin-Belfast road blundering right through the middle, Castlebellingham remains a pretty village. You can take refuge from the traffic down by the mill , now converted into a restaurant, where there's a turning gable-end water wheel powered by the River Glyde. Further upstream stands the Bellingham Castle , a sugary, castellated hotel, that serves good two-course bar lunches and is also the only place to stay in Castlebellingham (tel 042/937 2176; GBP55-70/?69.84-88.88). Moving northwards again, the next significant turning off the N1 (right) takes you to Blackrock and later allows you to bypass most of Dundalk. Blackrock itself (the Claremount Arms can have good Saturday-night traditional music sessions) is an overstretched ribbon of Victorian seaside villas along a mudflat beach. It does, though, offer a handsomely crystalline view across Dundalk Bay and on to the Cooley Peninsula, by now looming very close.
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