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This geopark tells the tale of how two oceans evolved over 400 million years of geological history. It charts the closure of the Iapetus Ocean and the birth of the North Atlantic Ocean, which generated large amounts of molten rock (or magma) both within the Earth’s crust and on the surface. The subsequent rocks and landscapes have since been shaped by numerous Earth processes but dominated by those during the most recent Ice Age. The last glaciation, at its peak between 27,000 and 23,000 years ago, scoured the landscape, moved rocks and sculpted it into landforms such as drumlins. The combination of mountain and coastal environments has led to the development of a hugely diverse range of glacial features not commonly seen in such a small area. These provide evidence of multiple stages of ice development and movement in the Mourne Mountains and in Strangford Lough. The region boasts three discrete upland regions in the Dromara Hills, Mourne Mountains, and Slieve Gullion (and the surrounding ring of hills known as the Ring of Gullion). The highest point in the region is within the Mourne Mountains and is Slieve Donard at 850 metres above sea level. The upland areas are surrounded by sweeping lowlands covered in glacial sediment, much of which is in the form of drumlins. The mountains are dissected by valleys formed by ice during the last glaciation. Carlingford Lough, a drowned glacial valley, lies on the southern edge of the Geopark, and Strangford Lough, the largest sea inlet in the UK and Ireland, lies at the eastern edge of the proposed Geopark, both of which are important to the early human history of the region and later became a major transport routes.