Explore Ancient Ulster

Travel through history to visit the clans, settlements and monuments that form thousands of years of local life.

Step back in time in ancient Mid Ulster

If you’re feeling the pull of Mid Ulster, you’re certainly not the first. People have been drawn to this part of the world for thousands of years. They settled here. They built here. Lived and worshipped, farmed and fished right here in Mid Ulster. They were buried here. We know this because they left so much evidence behind. Evidence you can see for yourself when you’re here.

Explore Bronze Age stone circles, 5,000-year old tombs and ancient seats of power. Visit a 10th century high cross, an 11th century dynastic centre and an assortment of archaeological features that show Mid Ulster has been a hub of human activity for several millennia.

Be transported to a time of warring clans, powerful dynasties and emerging primitive technologies. Unpick the mysteries of ancient stone formations and the relationships between people and nature, heaven and earth, life and death in ancient Ulster.

Take a trip to the Bronze Age

There are so many archaeological discoveries in this part of the world that you could almost spend an entire holiday in ancient Ulster. Take Beaghmore Stone Circles, outside Cookstown, for example. This impressive complex of early Bronze Age activity, includes seven stone circles plus cairns and other megalithic features. Some parts of the site are even thought to date to Neolithic times.

In the splendid isolation of ancient peat bogs surrounded by the Sperrin Mountains, which have stood sentry over the site for millions of years, it's easy to let the years fall away around you and imagine it’s 3,000BC. 

On the summit of Knockmany Hill in the beautiful Clogher Valley stands Knockmany Passage Grave. The remains of a Neolithic passage tomb built 5000 years ago, is the most decorated passage tomb to be found in the North of Ireland.

Discover powerful clans

Stand on the Hill Of The O’Neill, in Dungannon, and survey the land before you. Take in 360° views that encompass seven of Ulster’s nine counties. The panoramic scene also covers the watery expanse of Lough Neagh, the Sperrin Mountains, the Mourne Mountains and into County Cavan and County Monaghan.

It’s easy to see why this was an important seat of power for the powerful O'Neill dynasty from the 14th century and why thousands of years earlier the powerful druid Geannan, High King of Ireland, had chosen the very same hill as his stronghold.

Explore our rich archaeological history

Discover another of the O'Neills' (or Cenél nEógain, as the clan was in the 11th century) dynastic centres at the hilltop Tullaghoge Fort, in Cookstown. Visit Tirnony Dolmen, near Maghera, a Stone Age tomb thought to be around 5,000 years old, or the nearby Tirkane Sweathouse, an ancient type of sauna. Head to the shores of Lough Neagh to see the Ardboe High Cross, a five metre high 10th century monument built at the entrance of an even earlier monastery.  Travel to the the historic village of Donaghmore near Dungannon, home to one of the best preserved crosses of its kind in Ireland - over 1000 years old.

Or take the time to wander the trails and bogs of the remote Broughderg townland. As well as being home to the Beaghmore Stone Circles, this area is home to countless other standing stones, megalithic tombs, wedge tombs and other archaeological features. The 4,000-year-old Bronze Age burial cairn at Dun Ruadh and Aghascrebagh Ogham Stone are among the best-known examples, but there’s so much more to find.