CS Lewis identified Mourne Mountains as inspiration for Narnia

CS Lewis said that the view of the Mourne Mountains from Rostrevor, in County Down, gave him his idea of Narnia. Lewis grew up in Belfast and knew the Irish landscape well. He wrote in an essay that the Mourne Mountains made him feel that giants or other magical creatures might suddenly appear. Rostrevor is a small town about seven miles from Newry, and it has a fairy glen nearby. While he was living in Oxford, Lewis also wrote that he longed to see County Down covered in snow, where he expected to find dwarfs. Other places in Ireland, such as Dunluce Castle, may have shaped Narnia too, but Lewis himself only named the view from Rostrevor.