Bessbrook, An Sruthán, Co. Armagh

An Sruthán · Co. Armagh

A Quaker model village that built houses, schools and a church - and no pubs. Still none.

Bessbrook is the village a Quaker linen merchant drew on a piece of paper in 1845 and then built. John Grubb Richardson bought the mill, hired the workforce, and wrapped granite terraces around two squares - College Square and Charlemont Square - with a school, a dispensary, a meeting house, and homes for nearly three thousand workers. He left out three things on purpose: a public house, a pawn shop, and a police station. His logic was a chain: no pub means no debts, no debts means no pawnbroker, no pawnbroker means nothing for the police to do. Bournville in England copied the idea thirty years later and got famous for it. Bessbrook did it first.

The pubs never arrived. Nearly two centuries on, you still can't get a pint inside the village boundary - the nearest is in Camlough up the road, or back into Newry. The mill spun linen until 1972 and then stood empty until the British Army took it over and turned it into the busiest military heliport in Europe. For thirty years Lynx and Wessex and Puma helicopters lifted off the mill yard every few minutes, day and night, ferrying troops down to Crossmaglen and Forkhill. They stopped in 2007. The village heard the difference.

What's left is the bones of the original plan - the granite, the squares, the meeting house from 1864, the line where the tramway ran. Down the road, Derrymore House sits in its demesne with the room where the Act of Union was drafted in 1800. It's a small village with a strange amount of history per square metre, and it doesn't make a fuss about any of it.

Population

2,892

Walk score

Two granite squares and a mill - 15 minutes

Founded

1845

Coords

54.1839° N, 6.4006° W

01 / 06

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The plan

Built around a mill in 1845.

John Grubb Richardson laid out spacious streets and squares of granite terraces around the linen mill. Three P's was the rule: no public house, no pawn shop, no police. The pubs never came.

Stories & lore → 02 The tramway

First hydro-electric tramway in these islands.

Bessbrook to Newry, three miles, opened 1885. Hydro-power off the Camlough River, electric traction by Mather & Platt. Ran until 1948. The line is gone; the granite is still here.

Stories & lore → 03 The mountain

Camlough Mountain looks down on the village.

Part of the Ring of Gullion. A short, steep climb for a long view - Slieve Gullion to the south, Carlingford Lough to the east, the whole drumlin field running off into Down.

Walks & outings →

02 / 06

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

A village without pubs

The Three P's

John Grubb Richardson's rule for Bessbrook was disarmingly simple: no public houses, no pawn shops, no police. He believed the first led to the second, and the second made the third necessary. Remove the first and you removed the rest. Pubs were never licensed inside the village. Nearly 180 years later, none have opened. The model worked - or at least nobody has tested it the other way. Bournville, the Cadbury village outside Birmingham, was built on the same principle in 1879. Bessbrook was the original.

1885 - 1948

The hydroelectric tramway

The Bessbrook & Newry Tramway opened in October 1885 to carry workers and bales between the mill and the Great Northern Railway at Newry. Three feet narrow gauge, three miles of track, electric traction powered by a hydro station on the Camlough River. The electrical kit came from Mather & Platt of Manchester; the engineer was Edward Hopkinson. It was the first hydro-electric tramway on these islands and it ran for sixty-three years before the buses won. The track is gone. The bridges and a couple of the granite waiting rooms are still there if you know where to look.

1800

Derrymore and the Act of Union

A mile south of the village, Derrymore House is a thatched late-Georgian villa built between 1776 and 1787 by Isaac Corry, MP for Newry and Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer. The drawing room - now called the Treaty Room - is where the Act of Union between Britain and Ireland is reputed to have been drafted in 1800. Whether it was literally written there or just discussed there has been argued over for two centuries. The house was given to the National Trust in 1952 by a descendant of John Grubb Richardson; the demesne is open year-round, the Treaty Room only on selected dates.

Bessbrook Mill, 1976 - 2007

The busiest heliport in Europe

When the linen ran out in 1972, the mill stood empty for a few years, then the British Army moved in. South Armagh roads were too dangerous for vehicle convoys, so almost everything moved by air, and Bessbrook became the hub. At its peak the mill yard handled around 600 helicopter movements a week - Lynx, Wessex, Puma, Chinook - making it, by some counts, the busiest heliport in Europe. The thump of rotors over the squares was the soundtrack of the village for a generation. The army left on 25 June 2007. The mill has stood largely empty since, awaiting redevelopment.

03 / 06

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Camlough Mountain The trailhead is on Tamnaghbane Road, southwest of Newry. Forest road for the first kilometre, then steep peat and rock to the summit. Slieve Gullion fills the southern view; on a clear day Carlingford Lough opens to the east. Take a map - the top fogs in fast.

7 km loopdistance

2.5 - 3 hourstime

Derrymore Demesne Mature parkland around the Georgian house, oak and beech, a haha and a walled garden. National Trust, free to walk the grounds, small fee for the house when it's open. Park sensibly; the lane is narrow.

2 kmdistance

40 minutestime

Camlough Lake circuit Drive 5 minutes to Camlough village, then a flat path runs along the northern shore of the lough with the bulk of Camlough Mountain rising behind. Suitable for buggies up to the picnic area. Open water swimmers use the eastern end at their own risk.

4 kmdistance

1 hourtime

The squares Round College Square, across to Charlemont Square, past the granite Quaker Meeting House (1864), out to where the tramway ran. The whole village is a walking exhibit of how Richardson laid it out. Read the plaques.

1 kmdistance

20 minutestime

04 / 06

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Demesne wakes up at Derrymore. Long evenings on Camlough.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Best time for the mountain. The squares get the sun until late.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Beech in the demesne goes gold. Quietest in the year.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

The mountain is serious in cloud. Stick to the squares and the demesne.

◐ Mind yourself

05 / 06

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Looking for a pub in the village

There aren't any and there never were. That's the point. Drive five minutes to Camlough or ten to Newry if you want a pint.

The mill itself

Closed and fenced off, awaiting redevelopment. You can see it from outside - that's all there is to see.

Showing up for the Treaty Room unannounced

The grounds at Derrymore are open most of the year. The Treaty Room inside the house is open on selected dates only. Check the National Trust calendar before you drive.