Mount Stewart Christmas Market

Late nights in the decorated house on the Portaferry Road

The market is held on Mount Stewart's late-night Christmas openings, not every day. In recent years there has been one at the end of November and two in the week before Christmas.

The most recent dates we found, 27 November and 18 and 19 December, came from a page published in October 2025. The National Trust's 2026 listing shows the market but the dates were not visible to us, so check the events page.

Market hours on that page were 1pm to 7.30pm, with the house open until 8pm.

Gifts, festive drinks and music in the function room

The Trust describes locally made gifts and treats, festive drinks, food and Christmas music. The market is indoors in the function room, while the house rooms are dressed with trees and lights.

Fine & Dandy began as a handmade market in Belfast and now runs markets at venues such as the Titanic Hotel. Expect independent artists, designers, makers and small food producers from Northern Ireland.

Fine & Dandy's forms, and the reserves list

Fine & Dandy, not the National Trust, picks the traders. It releases application forms about two months before each market, linked from linktr.ee/fineanddandymarket, and contacts only successful applicants.

The 2026 forms are now closed. Makers can add themselves to the event reserves list on the same Linktree, as places can come up in later months.

Fine & Dandy balances the stall types, so a craft it already has may be turned down for now. No pitch fee or size is published for Mount Stewart; ask at [email protected].

Admission, the route 10 bus and the gardens after dark

There is no separate market ticket and no booking. The Trust's 2026 listing says admission applies, so members go in free and others pay the normal house and garden price.

Mount Stewart is on the Portaferry Road (A20), Newtownards, BT22 2AD. Ulsterbus route 10, Belfast to Portaferry via Newtownards, stops at the gates; check the last bus home on Translink.

After dark only the house, shop and tea-room are open. The gardens and trails close because the wider estate is not lit, so come in daylight to walk the lake.

Edith Londonderry's house and gardens by the lough

The Stewart family, later the Marquesses of Londonderry, bought the estate in 1744. The Temple of the Winds, a small banqueting house above Strangford Lough, followed in the 1780s. Edith, Lady Londonderry, laid out the gardens most people come to see in the 1920s.

Her daughter, Lady Mairi Bury, gave the gardens to the National Trust in 1957, and the house followed in the 1970s. A restoration reopened the house in 2015.