Millions celebrate his name each March. Now, thanks to the new St Patrick's Trail, ANDREW EAMES discovers the Irish patron saint's story can be traced all year round

IT WAS  while he was a teenage slave on the slopes of Mount Slemish, in Northern Ireland's County Antrim, that Patrick saw the vision that convinced him to escape Ireland and seek a spiritual life.

He eventually returned in AD 431, landing near Downpatrick, on a mission to convert the pagan population, founding his first church at Saul.

The reclaiming of its patron saint is part of the peace dividend of Northern Ireland and the 62-mile St Patrick's Trail will help give all the accumulated worldwide interest in him a terrestrial focus.

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There are 15 attractions on the route, from the compellingly simple Saul Church to 12th-century Down Cathedral in the comfortable, handsome town of Downpatrick, where St Patrick is buried. These both aptly represent the Saint's career path from humble beginnings at Saul, to great achievements in the form of the cathedral sitting magnificently atop its small hill.

Meanwhile, just below the cathedral is a far more recent building that is equally important on any St Patrick itinerary. Downpatrick's St Patrick Centre is the only permanent exhibition in the world telling the story of the Saint, including his use of the shamrock to symbolise the Trinity and how he supposedly banished all the snakes from Ireland (they still haven't returned).

The St Patrick Centre's highlight is an IMAX cinema helicopter ride over luxuriant County Down country while telling the Saint's story.

You don't need a helicopter to continue along the trail. From Downpatrick it heads west, skirting the moody mountains of Mourne, until it reaches Armagh, a cathedral city distinctively Georgian in architecture.

This is the present spiritual centre of Northern Ireland and its two cathedrals (Catholic and Church of Ireland) are both called St Patrick - the former soaring and relatively new, the latter essentially medieval despite having been destroyed 17 times in its lifetime.

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If you prefer to keep your pilgrimage non-denominational however, then Slemish Mountain, County Antrim, is the place. The mountain on which St Patrick spent six years as a slave may only be 1,433ft, but its unmistakable shape (it was once the lava plug of a volcano) and its St Patrick's association makes it the Uluru of Northern Ireland.

The climb up is not easy but you'll be rewarded by views stretching all the way north to the Giant's Causeway and, on a clear day, to Scotland.

You may not see any angels up on it as St Patrick supposedly did but I guarantee that, unlike Uluru, the ground beneath will be snake free.

GETTING THERE:

The Slieve Donard Resort & Spa (028 4372 1066/ www.hastingshotels.com) offers doubles from £140 per night (two sharing), B&B.

bmi (0844 848 4888/www.flybmi.com) offers return flights from Heathrow to Belfast City Airport from £70.

Europcar (0871 384 1089/www.europcar.co.uk) offers daily car hire from £21 based on a seven-day hire.

Saint Patrick Centre: 028 4461 9000/ www.saintpatrickcentre.com

Tourism Ireland: 0800 039 7000/ www.discoverireland.com