Where to Stay in County Armagh
Map of Where to Stay in County Armagh
Information about County Armagh
County Armagh is the smallest of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the most historically and spiritually significant, a place where the story of Christianity in Ireland has its deepest roots and where a landscape of apple orchards, gentle drumlin hills and ancient monuments carries the weight of over fifteen hundred years of religious and cultural life with a quiet and dignified grace.
Armagh city is the ecclesiastical capital of all Ireland, a distinction it has held since Saint Patrick established his principal church here in the fifth century and one that gives it a significance in the story of Irish Christianity that far exceeds its modest size. The city is unique in Ireland in having two cathedrals dedicated to Saint Patrick — one Catholic and one Church of Ireland — facing each other from their respective hilltops across the city in a arrangement that speaks eloquently of the complex and intertwined religious history of this part of Ireland. Both are buildings of considerable beauty and historical resonance and together make Armagh one of the most remarkable and moving ecclesiastical destinations in the British Isles.
The county’s landscape is one of the most distinctive in Northern Ireland. The drumlin hills of the north give way to the apple orchards of Armagh’s heartland, a landscape that bursts into extraordinary blossom each spring and has given the county its enduring identity as the Orchard of Ireland. The Navan Fort, just outside Armagh city, is one of the most significant prehistoric and early medieval sites in Ireland, its great circular earthwork associated in ancient legend with the Ulster Cycle and the mythological capital of the Kings of Ulster.
The southern part of the county borders Lough Neagh, the largest freshwater lake in the British Isles, and the Ring of Gullion, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty of volcanic origin whose distinctive circular landscape of hills, forests and ancient monuments offers superb walking and a sense of ancient mystery that is entirely its own.
Whether you are looking for a journey through the early Christian heritage of Armagh city, a walk in the Ring of Gullion, a stay among the apple orchards of the county’s heartland or a quiet retreat in one of the most historically layered landscapes in Ireland, County Armagh is a county of profound spiritual resonance and unexpected beauty.
More Where to Stay in Northern Ireland
If you are looking for more Where to Stay in Northern Ireland , there is something for everyone across the region. Please click on one of the counties below:
