Ards and North Down, district, eastern Northern Ireland. It is bounded to the north by Belfast Lough, to the east by the Irish Sea, to the south by the Newry, Mourne and Down district, to the west by the Lisburn and Castlereagh City district, and to the northwest by the Belfast City district. Much of the district forms a peninsula with its western shoreline along Strangford Lough and its eastern shoreline along the Irish Sea. The district’s administrative body, Ards and North Down Borough Council, meets in Bangor. Ards and North Down was created in 2015 by the merger of the districts of Ards and North Down. Pop. (2011) 156,672.