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BANBRIDGE |
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Follow the A1 south from Hillsborough and you'll pass through
BANBRIDGE on the River Bann. A trim, mainly Protestant town, with a
growing Catholic population, Banbridge was a major linen centre and also
a stop on the old coach route to the Mourne Mountains. However, the
steep hill - now the main street - to the south of the river presented
problems to horse-drawn mail coaches. A threat to bypass the town was
enough to initiate drastic action - and the result is the town's best-known
feature. In 1834 the wide main street was divided into three with an
underpass , known to locals as "the cut", carved out in the middle to
lower the hill, and the Downshire Bridge was built over the gap. The
town's most famous offspring is Captain Crozier, pioneer of the
Northwest Passage (the sea route from the Atlantic to the Pacific via
Arctic Canada), who was born in 1796 in a house on Church Square. The
house now overlooks the Crozier Memorial, on which four polar bears gaze
at the captain, who in turn gazes to the northwest.
The tourist office , known as Banbridge Gateway Tourist Information
Centre, is a couple of miles south of town at 200 Newry Rd (July & Aug
Mon-Sat 9am-7pm; rest of year Mon-Sat 10am-5pm; June-Sept also Sun
2-6pm; tel 028/4062 3322), and is the departure point for the six-hour
Linen Homelands Tour (May-Sept Wed 10am; £10). This comprehensive and
enjoyable tour explains the development of the manufacturing process by
whizzing you around the district, with visits to a flax farmer's
scutching mill, a local linen factory and the Irish Linen Centre and
Museum in Lisburn . The best B&B in the district is four miles northwest,
just beyond Gilford at Mount Pleasant , 38 Banbridge Rd (tel 028/3883
1522; £26-33). This vast castellated Georgian linen house sits on a
grassy knoll with a fine view, and has bedrooms the size of tennis
courts. There's little nightlife in Banbridge, although occasional club
nights at the Coach Inn , Church Square draw the crowds and Harry's Bar
, Dromore Street, serves great pub food and (a real rarity for Ireland)
specializes in draught ales. Banbridge's proximity to the Bann offers
numerous angling opportunities: advice, equipment and licences are
available from James Coburn & Son, 32 Scarva St (tel 028/4066 2207).
The area around Banbridge contains a number of sites of varied antiquity
and importance. Lisnagade Fort , three miles west on the Scarva road, is
an impressive circular earthwork, consisting of three massive
ditch-separated banks. The diameter of the inner circle is a good thirty
metres, but, though bronze artefacts have been recovered from the site,
little is known about its occupants. A little more is understood about
the Loughbrickland Crannóg , three miles southwest of Banbridge near the
village of Loughbrickland (take the A1, then the B3 Milltown road).
Constructed sometime around 500 AD this artificial island was inhabited
in the seventeenth century by the Magennis family, who had vacated a
castle that's thought to have been located on the lough shore. Lastly,
and most notably, the Legananny Dolmen is worth a considerable detour.
Its direction is signposted at the A50-B7 crossroads nine miles
southeast of Banbridge, and also at the village of Leitrim, three miles
north of Castlewellan. Whichever your approach, you'll find yourself on
narrow humped lanes, gradually ascending the southern edge of the Slieve
range, and feeling increasingly distant from modern realities. You may
also experience a sense of déjà vu when you arrive at the site, for the
dolmen is a popular choice of guidebook and tourist board photographers.
There's no doubting the impressiveness of the structure, looking for all
the world like a giant stone tripod. Not too far away on the
Castlewellan road to the east is a welcome oasis, the Slieve Croob Inn
(tel 028/4377 1412; slievecroob@mcmail.com ; £55-70), a wonderfully
situated hotel whose bistro and restaurant serve mouth-watering meals,
and which also has self-catering accommodation (£190-£350 per week).
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