It was great to hear this week that the National Trust has acquired the whole of the Mount Stewart Estate. They previously only owned the house and gardens, and it has always been somewhat frustrating as a regular visitor that the rest of the estate was essentially 'out of bounds' to mere oiks such as myself.
With this near one thousand acre procurement, the Trust will be able to create a beacon of countryside access on the Ards Peninsula. Indeed, those pieces of coast or countryside on the Ards which are accessible tend to be owned and managed by the National Trust, such as Kearney, Nugents Wood,or Ballyquentin Farm.
Up to now, barring those mentioned above, the Ards has been an area severely lacking in countryside access opportunities. This has meant it has a relatively under-developed tourism economy. Visitors tend to drive the coast road to Mount Stewart, carry on to Portaferry and then get the ferry to Strangford. As with much of Northern Ireland, the area has loads of potential, but local politicians have little vision. The result is a rural economy which has badly stagnated.
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