Visit Cookstown Smartphone Visitor Guide by Cookstown District Council

a gateway to the Sperrins

Visit Cookstown

Smartphone

Guide

explore more explore cookstown www.facebook.com/visitcookstown

www.cookstown.gov.uk

Cookstown explore more

Smartphone Guide

www.cookstown.gov.uk

Visiting Cookstown… About this guide Welcome to the first ever Smartphone Guide that allows you to experience a visit to Cookstown in a whole new way. If you have a Smartphone like an iphone, blackberry, or even an android phone, download a FREE version of QR reader from your app store and you’re ready! On each page you will find an individual QR code, simply open your QR app, snap an image of the code – and enjoy the video and audio tours we’ve created of some of the best places to visit in Cookstown and throughout the wider Sperrins region. You’ve got great places to choose from, such as the busy market town of Cookstown, to intriguing heritage sites and great visitor attractions suitable for families and groups. There is a variety of videos throughout this guide which will interest adults and children alike.

What are you waiting for? So much more to experience, so much more to enjoy! Explore more, explore Cookstown ...

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Welcome to Cookstown www.cookstown.gov.uk

Welcome to Cookstown a gateway to the Sperrins The Cookstown District extends into the unspoilt Sperrin Mountains in the west, an area of outstanding natural beauty, and in the east to the vast expanse of Lough Neagh, the largest fresh water lake in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Cookstown was founded as a market town in 1628 by Dr Allen Cooke and the weekly Saturday market which was granted a Royal Charter still thrives today. Also famous for having the longest and widest street in Ireland, Cookstown Main Street stretches to over one and a quarter miles long and is up to 135 feet wide in places, making it truly a shopper’s paradise. The Cookstown District boasts a vast array of places to visit, great activities, accommodation and much more for the visitor. There is so much on offer from great days to great nights out. Scan the barcode below to sample the experience for yourself. And when you decide to visit make sure you call into Cookstown Tourist Information Centre who will be on hand to ensure that your experience of visiting Cookstown is a great one. Use the QR Barcode Scanner to watch your video of Cookstown

Got a Smartphone? Download QR Reader Free and scan the barcode to watch your video.

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Heritage Trail

Moneymore

Moneymore Heritage Trail

This is a short trail through the village of Moneymore which explains the wonderful rich heritage and culture of this beautiful conservation area. Having been a settlement for over 400 years, Moneymore's historic past can still be seen in a range of important architectural buildings which hide behind the busy village today.

The young at heart can discover the trail and do some simple brass rubbings. If you ask at the Manor House Reception or Springhill House you can get some paper and some wax crayons. Take these on your trail and look for the brass insert on every interpretation plaque located beside each building. See if you can use the rubbings to spell 'Moneymore', you may have to search for the correct letters. The trail should last approximately one and a half hours and is suitable for everyone.

So go on have a go, from the introductory video and audio tours below as well as five videos (on page 9) at individual locations along the trail ... enjoy!

Introductory Video Tour of Moneymore Heritage Trail

Audio Tours ‐ 17 points of interest on the Moneymore Heritage Trail

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Heritage Trail

Moneymore

Moneymore Origins An introductory video to the village of Moneymore, the Plantation of Ulster and the London Drapers Company.

Moneymore Rebellion Learn how the village was destroyed during the 1641 Rebellion. Includes an interview with the character ‘Lady Staples’ who was imprisoned in Moneymore Castle.

Prosperity in Moneymore in the 19th Century The Drapers invested in the village during the early 19th Century and we can see the buildings that still remain today.

Moneymore Churches Learn how these houses of worship were established and funded by the London Drapers. Includes an interview the character of Reverend Barnett.

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Springhill House A video explaining the history of the National Trust property Springhill House and the story of the ghost of Olivia Lenox‐Conyngham.

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and abbey

Ardboe Cross This site is owned and managed by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency

Image courtesy of NITB

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Ardboe Cross and Abbey One of the finest examples of the Irish High Cross in Ulster can be found at Ardboe, County Tyrone, located on a small hillock close to the western shores of Lough Neagh. Ardboe High Cross, which dates to the ninth/tenth century AD, is all that now remains of a sixth century monastery, which was established at Ardboe by St. Colman. The monastery was burned in 1166, destroying any early wooden structures. Nonetheless, Ardboe endured as a centre for Christian worship, later becoming the site of a medieval parish, and in the nearby graveyard stands the remains of a seventeenth century church erected for Protestant worship ‐ abandoned in the eighteenth century for the current Church of Ireland location. Also located in a nearby field to the north is another ruined church known as the "Abbey". The Cross, made of sandstone is exceptionally tall, about eighteen feet, and is a characteristic local style, with taller, more narrow, shaft with a small cross head ‐ also the case at the nearby High Cross in Donaghmore, County Tyrone. Although slightly weathered and damaged ‐ emigrants in the earlier part of this century often took with them a small chip of stone from the cross ‐ Ardboe High Cross is a superb example of figure carving incorporating twenty two panels of sculpture of biblical events.

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Stone Circles

Beaghmore This site is owned and managed by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency

Image courtesy of NITB

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Beaghmore Stone Circles Beaghmore Stone Circles are located 8.5 miles north west of Cookstown County Tyrone, on the south‐east perimeter of the Sperrin Mountains. While stone circles are fairly common in some parts of Ireland, namely in the east, south and north, the most extensive concentration of stone circles is to be found at Beaghmore. Discovered during peat cutting in the 1940s, the site at Beaghmore consists of 7 stone circles. All of the rings are associated with cairns and a stone row runs towards these cairns. It is possible that Neolithic occupation and cultivation preceded the erection of burial cairns and ceremonial circles and alignments: some irregular lines and heaps of boulders resembling field‐fences or field‐clearance may predate the ritual structures. At some stage weather conditions and the local climate changed, resulting in peat starting to form over the site. It is possible that the cairns and rows were erected in a futile attempt to restore fertility to the soil by attracting back the fading sun.

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Land of the O’Neill

Tullaghoge Fort This site is owned and managed by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency

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Tullaghoge Fort This magnificent hilltop enclosure commands wide views and, planted with trees, is visible from miles around. The site comes into historical prominence in the 11th century when it was a dynastic centre and inauguration place of the Cenél nEógain (later the O'Neills). It was the residence of the O'Hagans who, with the O'Cahans, performed the inauguration ceremony. The O'Hagan burial place, Donaghrisk, is the circular walled graveyard at the foot of the hill to the south‐west. The earthwork at Tullaghoge Fort is not an exclusively defensive site, but rather a royal power centre. Its banks and ditches date to different times when the site was in use. It now has an inner embanked enclosure, separated from an outer bank by a wide, flat space, and there is no external ditch. The fort is shown in Bartlett's 1601 pictorial map with two gateways and two thatched buildings. The widow of a planter, Robert Lindsey, was living here in 1619, but the site was abandoned by 1622. The stone inauguration chair, visible on the 1601 map on the hillside to the south was broken up by the English Lord Deputy Mountjoy, advancing north against the O'Neills in 1602.

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More to see www.cookstown.gov.uk