‘I felt I’d stepped into Narnia’: walking St Patrick’s Way in Northern Ireland

The pilgrim path celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Our writer takes in the uncrowded moors, mountains, canal and coast, on an adventure straight out of a storybook

A single streetlight glowed brightly in the darkening evening as I approached a small wooden door. As it grew closer, the silhouette of a familiar figure emerged. It wasn’t a man, but rather a faun, bowing down to shake my hand – and all at once I’d stepped into the pages of my favourite childhood books containing the fantastical world of Narnia.

Yet this was no imagined place. It was, instead, a fittingly magical introduction to the lakeside (or, rather, loughside) village of Rostrevor, situated on the coast of Carlingford Lough in County Down.