NORTHERN IRELAND A VISUAL TREAT, DESPITE `THE TROUBLES'.

Byline: Audrey Woods Associated Press 

Where the Mountains of Mourne run down to the Irish Sea, nature lovers prowl the sand dunes and shorebirds breed in the embrace of Dundrum Bay.

The southeast coast village of Dundrum is strung along the shore of the smaller Inner Bay, and a hill behind rises steeply to the ruined keep of a Norman castle.

On a clear day, the 13th-century round tower is the place to begin a visit, with a fine view to the hazy, rounded summits of the Mournes, the rolling green patchwork of the inland countryside, and out across the glistening bay to the sea.

Three miles west along the coast road lies Newcastle, one of a handful of seaside resorts on the south coast of County Down.

Further along is Warrenpoint, better known for the Irish Republican Army massacre of 18 British soldiers in 1979 than for its tennis, golf and night life.

This, of course, is Northern Ireland's biggest image problem.

The 1994 cease-fires in the province's sectarian battle, broken by the Irish Republican Army in February, brought relief to the people of Northern Ireland, and foreigners continue to travel unmolested. But the very words Portadown, Newry and Enniskillen summon images of razor wire, roadblocks and grief.

Few outsiders would think of Northern Ireland as the pretty, rural place it is. Most of the province is farmland dotted with hamlets and villages, much like the south of Ireland. There are miles of fine coastline, and the natives are just as friendly.

What it doesn't have is enough hotel rooms, but the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, which inspects and licenses all accommodations, is encouraging people to open their homes for bed and breakfast. Two hundred have opened since the 1994 cease-fires. (Prices average 15 pounds ($22) per person per night.)

The upside of a minimal tourism industry is that foreigners who do visit are treated to a landscape largely free of garish signs and fast-food litter. Fewer giant tour buses hog the gentle bends in the road.

County Down, in the southeast, is just the place for nature lovers, hikers and history hounds, dotted with medieval castles and churches, and neolithic burial monuments. There's a Bronze Age stone circle at Ballynoe, near the uphill-and-down town of Downpatrick. St. Patrick's reputed grave is in Downpatrick, in the Church of Ireland cathedral graveyard.

Less than a mile north, in a curve of the River Quoile, stands the ruin of Inch Abbey. A graceful fragment of the 12th century, it retains the air of seclusion and tranquility valued by the ascetic Cistercian monks who lived there.

The river slides silently by, the air is clear as glass, and the only sound is the gossip of rooks roosting in a tree.

At Strangford village, you can catch a ferry to Portaferry and drive up the east coast of the lough to the National Trust's Mount Stewart house and garden, and to Greyabbey, another medieval Cistercian house. That side of the lough is the narrow Ards Peninsula, scattered with seaside villages and small farms.

Near Strangford on the lough's south shore is whimsical Castle Ward, another National Trust house in a 700-acre park. The 18th-century mansion was built with one classical facade to please the owner, and one facade in the trendy ``gothick'' style to please his wife.

The trust offers two of the estate cottages for vacation rental. Two other trust cottages can be rented on the shore of Dundrum Inner Bay, at the edge of Murlough Nature Reserve - 938 acres of sand dunes that extend to the foothills of the Mournes and support all sorts of animals and plants.

From the kitchen window of one of the whitewashed stone cottages - about 10 feet from the water's edge - you can watch wading birds forage at low tide. In autumn, as the sky turns pink with the setting sun, you can listen to the Brent geese socializing while you settle in front of a peat fire.

Dundrum is a good center for walkers. There are paths through the dunes, and two national forest parks are about five miles away. Castlewellan park, to the north, has a lake, pony-trekking, campsites and the national arboretum.

The Mournes are traversed by only a couple of main roads, so hikers have miles of unspoiled routes to such places as Silent Valley, Red Moss, Moolieve and Wee Binnian.

You could tackle the Ulster Way, a 560-mile route around six northern counties that passes through the Mournes.

Or you could just go to the nearest pub and think about it over a foaming pint of Guinness.

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Photo: Ruins of Inch Abbey in the countryside near Downpatr ick, Northern Ireland, retain the tranquil air important to the Cistercian monks who lived there in the 12th century.

Audrey Woods/Associated Press