Newry straddles the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic in all but name — the frontier is just a few miles south, and the town has always been a crossing point. It sits in the gap between the Mourne Mountains and Slieve Gullion, with the Newry Canal (the oldest summit-level canal in the British Isles) running through the centre.
The town has reinvented itself since the Troubles. The Buttercrane and Quays shopping centres draw cross-border shoppers, but the older streets around Hill Street and the cathedral quarter have more character. Newry Cathedral, built in 1829, was the first Catholic cathedral built in Ireland after Catholic Emancipation. The Town Hall, a striking granite building on a bridge over the canal, is worth a look, and Bagenal's Castle — a Tudor tower house that was for centuries hidden inside a later bakery — now houses the town museum.
For walkers, the Mournes are the main draw — Slieve Donard, the highest peak in Northern Ireland, is less than half an hour's drive east.