Ireland (Lonely Planet, 9th Edition) - Fionn Davenport [559]
Armagh Omniplex ( 08717 200400; www.omniplex.ie; Market St; adult/child £6/4) Four-screen cinema next door to the arts centre.
Northern Bar ( 3752 7315; 100 Railway St) The Northern is your best bet for live bands, with traditional music sessions on Tuesday evenings, and local rock bands and DJs on Friday and Saturday nights.
You may be lucky enough to catch a game of road bowling (www.irishroadbowling.ie), a traditional Irish game now played mostly in Armagh and Cork. Contestants hurl small metal bowls weighing 750g along quiet country lanes to see who can make it to the finishing line with the least number of throws. Games usually take place on Sunday afternoons in summer, with the Ulster Finals held at Armagh in late June. Ask for details at the tourist information centre.
Getting There & Away
Buses stop at Armagh BusCentre on Lonsdale Rd, north of the town centre.
Goldline Express bus 251 runs from Belfast’s Europa BusCentre (£8, one to 1½ hours, hourly Monday to Friday, six Saturday, four Sunday) to Armagh. Bus 44 runs from Armagh to Newry (£5, 1¼ hours, twice daily Monday to Saturday), and Goldline Express 295 runs to Enniskillen (£7, two hours, twice daily Monday to Saturday, July and August only) via Monaghan.
There are no direct services from Armagh to Derry – the fastest route (three hours) is via Dungannon (buses 72 and 273).
Armagh is a stop on the once-daily bus 278 from Coleraine to Monaghan (change here for Dublin) and the once-daily bus 270 from Belfast to Galway.
Return to beginning of chapter
AROUND ARMAGH CITY
Navan Fort
Perched atop a drumlin a little over 3km west of Armagh is Navan Fort (Emain Macha), the most important archaeological site in Ulster. It was probably a prehistoric provincial capital and ritual site, on a par with Tara in County Meath.
The Irish name Emain Macha means ‘the twins of Macha’, Macha being the same mythical queen or goddess after whom Armagh itself is named (from Ard Macha, ‘heights of Macha’). The site is linked in legend with the tales of Cúchulainn and named as capital of Ulster and the seat of the legendary Knights of the Red Branch.
It was an important centre from around 1150 BC until the coming of Christianity; the discovery of the skull of a Barbary ape on the site indicates trading links with North Africa. The main circular earthwork enclosure is no less than 240m in diameter, and encloses a smaller circular structure and an Iron Age burial mound. The circular structure has intrigued archaeologists – it appears to be some sort of temple, whose roof was supported by concentric rows of wooden posts, and whose interior was filled with a vast pile of stones. Stranger still, the whole thing was set on fire soon after its construction around 95 BC, possibly for ritual purposes.
The nearby Navan Centre ( 3752 9644; www.navan.com; 81 Killylea Rd, Armagh; adult/child £5.15/3.45; 10am-7pm Jul-Sep, to 4pm Oct-Dec & Easter-Jun) has exhibitions placing the fort in its historical context, and a recreation of an Iron Age settlement.
You can walk to the site from Armagh (45 minutes), or you can take bus 73 to Navan village (10 minutes, 10 daily Monday to Friday).
Return to beginning of chapter
NORTH ARMAGH
North Armagh, ‘the orchard of Ireland’, is the island’s main fruit-growing region, famed for its apples and strawberries. In May the countryside is awash with pink apple blossoms.
Ardress House
Starting life as a farmhouse, Ardress House ( 8778 4753; 64 Ardress Rd; adult/child £4.60/2.30; 2-6pm Thu-Sun Jul & Aug, 2-6pm Sat & Sun mid-Mar–Jun & Sep) was extended and converted to a manor house in 1760. Much of the original neoclassical interior remains, including a table made in 1799 on which King George V signed the Constitution of Northern Ireland in 1921. The farmyard houses a vast collection of machinery, along with a piggery and a smithy. The walled garden has been planted with a selection of the old apple varieties for which north Armagh’s orchards are famous, and there are pleasant walks around the wooded grounds.
Ardress House