evidence: The area has been awarded the prestigious "European Destination of Excellence" an imprimatur to the visitor of quality and a real cultural experience. Carlingford Lough is a shallow sea lough, which forms part of the border between Northern Ireland and the [...] The region owes its striking landscape to a combination of the underlying geology and the surface processes that have sculpted these rocks over the millions of years since their formation. The upland areas are all underlain by igneous rocks: Slieve Croob is formed of rocks belonging to the Newry Igneous Complex that was emplaced as the ancient Iapetus Ocean closed; the other areas in the Carlingford Lough region are underlain by granite and gabbro that date back to a period during the opening of the North Atlantic Ocean. The magmas intruded earlier rocks, including sandstone, shale, and limestone, which tell some of the geological history of the region back to 440Ma (million years), a period of time that represents around a tenth of the age of the Earth itself . These rocks have been baked and altered close to their contacts with the igneous intrusions. Carlingford Lough was originally very shallow (