County Down is one of the six counties of Ulster that comprise Northern Ireland. It contains part of Belfast, the capital and transport hub, so most visitors to the province are destined to pass through. It's worth taking the extra time to explore the Victorian resorts east along the coast, the religious centre of Downpatrick, and the scenic Mourne Mountains.
The Normans divided Ireland into shires or counties, but this had no effect on Ulster which remained ruled by Irish chieftains or petty kings right up to the 17th century. Then the Nine Years War deposed the last of the chieftains, who fled to the continent, their lands were seized, and the new southern overlords started making up for lost time. To prevent further rebellion Ulster was settled with loyal British subjects, mostly from Protestant Scotland. This was concentrated around Belfast and in the lowland areas of Counties Down, Antrim and Armagh, which developed industry - initially linen, later metal-bashing and other smokestack trades. The British monarch was Catholic until 1688, when Down was one of the first areas to rebel against the rule of James II - they were beaten at first, but reinforcements arrived and cemented the Protestant rule of William III. By the time of Irish independence in 1921, County Down was one of the six counties of Ulster that were predominantly Protestant and that remained within the United Kingdom in the entity called Northern Ireland.
In Irish a dรบn is a fort, usually on a hilltop, and the landscape is dotted with them. County Down took its name from its administrative seat at Dรบn Pรกdraig, Downpatrick, the fort or hill of St Patrick who is believed to be buried there. Belfast burgeoned as an industrial city, a seaside resort grew up at Bangor, Downpatrick stood in farmland amidst the drumlin or "basket of eggs" rolling country near Stangford Lough, while further south were rain-lashed mountains: see Mourne Mountains for how fire, mud and ice forged this region.
The county boundaries often follow rivers which divide towns: Belfast, Lisburn and Newry are all bisected. It was only a minor inconvenience, and Belfast was a self-governing metropolis. It also helped that County Down did not have a land border with the Republic, so it escaped the blight and banditry that afflicted Tyrone and Armagh. (At Carlingford Lough however it's separated only by a narrow sea channel, which facilitated the IRA's Warrenpoint massacre of 1979.) There were other problems with the county structure of Northern Ireland so in 2011 they were abolished as units of government. County Down is now divided into the districts of Belfast City, Ards and North Down, Newry Mourne and Down, and Armagh City Banbridge and Craigavon which is mostly in County Armagh. None of this makes the slightest difference to visitors, the counties still make sense for planning itineraries, and these pages continue to reflect the previous structure.
English is the primary language, although the local rapid, hard accent can be a challenge to understand; it's quite unlike the lilt of other Irish accents. Very few in Down speak the Irish language. The language was actively suppressed by the British so over centuries it declined. There is now a revival of the language in the county, Irish Language Centres in both West Belfast and East Belfast and a number of Irish language primary schools.
Belfast is the transport hub, with two airports (City or George Best just east, with mostly UK flights, and International or Aldergrove 20 miles west, with European plus some UK flights), ferries from Stranraer, Birkenhead and the Isle of Man, trains from Dublin and Derry, and buses from Dublin and across Northern Ireland.
From the south the usual approach is to cross the border at Newry then follow A1. A scenic route into the Mourne Mountains is by the Carlingford Ferry across the opening of the lough east of Dundalk. See Newry#Get in for details.
Frequent trains run from Portadown and Lisburn across Belfast to Holywood and Bangor. The trains from Dublin also stop in Newry, as do some of the buses.
Most bus routes fan out from Belfast Europa bus station, which is next to Great Victoria Street railway station. However buses for Holywood, Bangor, Newtownards and Ards Peninsula (for Strangford) run from Laganside bus station, which is next to Lanyon Place railway station. At the tip of the peninsula, a ferry links Portaferry with Strangford.
It's a large county, and several places of interest are well out in the countryside, so you need a car.
A network of national cycleways crosses the county, though they're mostly on road.
Primary administrative division