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NEWTOWNSTEWART AND SION MILLS |
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A quick route north from Omagh passes through rich farmland to
NEWTOWNSTEWART which, surprisingly for its size, boasts remnants of two
castles . In the main street a gable wall is all that remains of the
Stewart castle burned down on the orders of James II; squatting in
isolation on a hill to the southwest are the ruins of the fourteenth-century
Harry Avery's castle, another O'Neill stronghold. But Newtownstewart's
real draw is the gem of a museum that's housed in the tiny tourist
office (May-Sept Tues-Fri 11am-4pm, Sat 11.30am-5pm, Sun 2-5pm; tel
028/8166 2414; £1.20) a couple of hundred yards down the Omagh road from
the main street. Local historian Billy Dunbar, a walking encyclopedia,
donated his collection of vintage packaging, man traps, stereoscopes and
war memorabilia to the museum when he could no longer navigate from one
end of his house to the other. Highlights include a Bordalous (a mini-chamberpot
named after a French priest renowned for his over-long sermons), and a
threepenny bit engraved with the Lord's Prayer.
Next door to Newtownstewart's museum is Aunt Jane's welcoming café ,
open seven days a week. There's B&B accommodation in the Baronscourt
Forest area, three miles south on the B64 towards Drumquin, at Hunting
Lodge Hotel , Letterbin (tel 028/8166 1679; £40-55), a converted
nineteenth-century schoolhouse. There's camping at the municipal
Harrigan Caravan Park (tel 028/8166 2414), just over the Mourne River on
the north side of Newtownstewart, but you need to arrive before 5pm.
The linen industry of the eighteenth century made a big impact in
Tyrone, as it did all over Ulster, but its traces are mostly faint ones
- such as the disused mills along the Ballinderry River near Cookstown.
SION MILLS , a planned linen village seven miles north of
Newtownstewart, is the obvious exception. The quaint village, which
belies the gruesome conditions of nineteenth-century factory work, is
designated a conservation area, though the Herdman's linen works still
operates, amidst security fences and cameras. You can skirt around it on
foot and down to the Mourne River, where there's good fishing . For B&B
, Bide-a-Wee , on the main Omagh-Strabane A5 at 181 Melmount Rd (tel
028/8165 9571; £33-40), is friendly and has a swimming pool.
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