POSTED FROM

CALEDON

CO. ARMAGH · IE

Caledon
Cionn Aird

The Ireland's Ancient East
STOP 06 / 06

Cionn Aird · Co. Armagh

An estate village on the Blackwater, where 1968 cracked something open.

Caledon is a planned estate village strung along the Blackwater, which here is the county boundary. The Alexander family — Earls of Caledon since 1800 — laid the streets, built the courthouse, the market house, the cottages, the gates. They still live behind the wall. You won't be invited in.

What's left for you is the village itself, which is small and intact and unusually well-kept for somewhere this far off any tourist road. Conservation area since 1984. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century stone buildings up Main Street. The gate piers to the demesne sit at the end of the village like a full stop.

And then there's the other thing. In June 1968, a young nationalist MP named Austin Currie occupied a council house at Kinnard Park to protest its allocation — a single 19-year-old, Protestant, secretary to a unionist candidate, given the keys ahead of Catholic families with children. He was thrown out the same afternoon. Two months later there was a march in Dungannon, then Derry in October, then everything that followed. People come to Caledon for the architecture. The rest of the story is here too, on a quiet residential street, with no plaque.

Population

~400

Coords

54.3633° N, 6.8336° 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 estate

Cooley laid it out, Nash dressed it up.

Caledon House was built for the 1st Earl in 1779 to Thomas Cooley's design. The 2nd Earl had John Nash add the wings and colonnade between 1808 and 1812. The Alexander family is still there. The gates aren't open to you.

Stories & lore → 02 The river

The Blackwater is the county line.

Stand on the bridge and one bank is one county, the other is another. The Dredge Suspension Footbridge over the river is the only one of its kind in Ireland. Walk it slowly — it bounces.

Walks & outings → 03 20 June 1968

Austin Currie sat in a house and the Troubles started.

A 19-year-old single Protestant woman was given a council house at Kinnard Park while a Catholic family with children sat on the waiting list. Currie occupied the house. The RUC threw him out within hours. The first NI civil rights march followed two months later.

Stories & lore →

02 / 06

Stories & lore.

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

Cooley, then Nash

The house

James Alexander made his money in India with the East India Company, came home, bought the Caledon estate in 1778, and commissioned Thomas Cooley to design him a Classical house — finished in 1779. He was made 1st Earl of Caledon in 1800 and died two years later. His son brought in John Nash, the Regency architect, who added the single-storey domed wings and the Ionic colonnade between 1808 and 1812. The house is grade A listed. It is not regularly open to the public. The walls of the demesne run for miles.

Earl Alexander of Tunis

Field Marshal Alexander

Harold Alexander was the third son of the 4th Earl of Caledon, born in 1891. He commanded British forces in North Africa and Italy in the Second World War — the man who took Tunis, the man Eisenhower called the soldier's general. Created 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis in 1952. Later Governor General of Canada. He kept coming back to Caledon. The family graves are here.

The squat that started it

Kinnard Park, June 1968

The Goodfellow family — Mary Teresa and Fran, with their two young children Dawn and Brian — had been allocated, and then evicted from, a house at Kinnard Park. The bailiffs put them out on 19 June. The house next door was given to Emily Beattie, single, 19, secretary to a unionist parliamentary candidate. Austin Currie, the nationalist MP for East Tyrone, walked into the house on 20 June 1968 with two local men and refused to leave. The RUC removed them in three hours. RTÉ filmed it. A civil rights march was organised for Coalisland to Dungannon that August. October brought Derry. The civil rights movement had its first public flashpoint, and it happened on a street of council houses in Caledon.

Ireland's only suspension footbridge

The Dredge Bridge

Cross the Blackwater opposite the estate gates on the Dredge Suspension Footbridge — designed by James Dredge, patented chain-and-tapered-bar system, an unusual survival. Picnic spot beside it. The bridge bounces under your feet. That's working as intended.

03 / 06

Things to do outside.

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

Main Street and the gates The full village walk. Courthouse, market house, fountain, the listed Georgian terraces, ending at the demesne gate piers. Slow looking, not striding.

1 kmdistance

20 mintime

The Dredge Footbridge Down to the river opposite the estate gates. Ireland's only suspension footbridge of its type. Cross it, look up at the trees of the demesne, come back. Picnic table.

500 mdistance

15 mintime

Blackwater riverbank The river is the county boundary here. There are towpath remnants and field paths along the water. Wear boots and don't expect waymarking.

Variabledistance

As you liketime

04 / 06

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar–May

The estate trees come into leaf, the village is at its prettiest, and you have it largely to yourself.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun–Aug

Long evenings on the river. Still quiet — Caledon is not on any coach route.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep–Oct

The demesne woodlands turn. The light on the stone is at its best.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov–Feb

Short days, things shut early. The architecture is still there but the river paths get heavy.

◐ 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.

Trying to get into Caledon House

It's a private family seat. Not a heritage attraction. Don't ring the bell.

Looking for a plaque at Kinnard Park

There isn't one. It's an ordinary residential street. Read the story, walk past, don't loiter — people live there.

Driving here for a meal

The village is tiny. Pub-and-restaurant options are limited and irregular — check before you set off. Armagh city is 10 km away and has the food.

Getting there.

By car

Armagh to Caledon is 15 minutes on the A28 west. From Monaghan town, 20 minutes east across the border. From Belfast, about 1h 15m via the M1 and A29.

By bus

Translink Ulsterbus 261 runs Armagh–Aughnacloy and stops in Caledon. Limited service; check timetables.