Killylea, Coill Léith, Co. Armagh

Coill Léith · Co. Armagh

A village on a hill, five miles west of Armagh, with a church at the top and a closed railway at the bottom.

Killylea is a small linear village in the west of County Armagh, five miles from Armagh city on the A28 - the road that runs from Newry up through Aughnacloy and on into Tyrone. It sits in drumlin country, close enough to the borders with both Tyrone and Monaghan that you can drive into either county inside fifteen minutes. The 2011 census counted 253 people in 107 households. It hasn't grown much since.

What there is to see is on the hill. St Mark's Church of Ireland, built in 1832, stands at the top of the village. The Methodist church sits at the bottom. Between them is one street of houses, a Twelfth-of-July parade route the police still issue traffic notices for, and the line of a railway that used to take people to Clones and back. The station closed in 1957 with the rest of the GNR branch, and the village has been a road-village ever since. Don't come for an evening out - Armagh is fifteen minutes away and does that job. Come if you're driving the back road west and want to know where the hill comes from.

Population

253 (2011 census)

Coords

54.3500° N, 6.7833° W

01 / 05

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 hill

St Mark's at the summit, 1832.

The village climbs one long street and the Church of Ireland sits at the top. Built in 1832 by the parish of Tynan. The Methodist church is at the bottom of the same hill. You can walk between them in five minutes and you'll feel the gradient by the third.

Stories & lore → 02 The A28

On the Aughnacloy-Newry road.

Armagh city is five miles east. Caledon and the Tyrone border are a few miles west. The A28 is the spine - most people who pass through Killylea are going somewhere else and that's been the shape of the village for two centuries.

Getting there → 03 The line that closed

Killylea station, 1858 to 1957.

The Ulster Railway opened the station in May 1858 on the Armagh-Clones line. It became part of the GNR in 1876. The whole line shut on 14 October 1957. The platform is gone. The road took over and never gave it back.

Stories & lore →

02 / 05

Stories & lore.

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

The church at the top, 1832

St Mark's on the hill

Killylea was carved out of the parishes of Armagh, Tynan and Derrynoose. St Mark's Church of Ireland was built at the highest point of the village in 1832 and the parish has run from there ever since. Today it's joined with Caledon and Brantry as a grouped parish under the Diocese of Armagh. The graveyard is small and quiet. The view from the gate looks east across drumlin country toward Armagh city. The Methodist congregation built its own church at the foot of the hill and the two have shared the village without fuss for the best part of two centuries.

Ulster Railway to GNR to nothing

The railway that ran the line

The Ulster Railway opened Killylea station on 25 May 1858 as part of its extension west toward Clones. The company merged into the Great Northern Railway in 1876, and for the next eighty years the line carried passengers and goods between Armagh, Tynan & Caledon, Glaslough, Monaghan and Clones. The Northern Ireland government forced the closure of the GNR's lines through Armagh on 1 October 1957. Killylea shut on 14 October. The track was lifted, the station was demolished, and the village's connection to the wider network became - and remains - a bus.

Killylea, Middletown, Tynan village

Tynan parish

Killylea sits inside the historic civil parish of Tynan, which also takes in Middletown to the south-west and Tynan village itself a couple of miles further on. The parish was historically dominated by the Stronge family of Tynan Abbey - a grand house burnt out in 1981 - and the neighbouring Caledon estate of the Earls of Caledon, just over the Tyrone border. Most of the land around Killylea was rented from one estate or the other through the nineteenth century. The estate walls are still there. The big houses are not what they were.

03 / 05

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Hedges in, drumlins green, the road quiet. The view from the church gate is at its best.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

The Twelfth of July parade comes through - expect road closures and a busy day. Otherwise long evenings on the hill.

◐ Mind yourself

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Low light on the drumlins, no crowds, the back roads west into Tyrone at their best.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days, no services to speak of. Plan a passing-through, not an evening.

◐ Mind yourself

04 / 05

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 the railway station

It's gone. The line was lifted in the late 1950s and there's no preserved platform, no plaque worth the detour. The absence is the story.

Coming for food or a pint

Killylea is a village of houses, churches and a road. Armagh is five miles east and does evenings properly. Caledon is a few miles west if you want a quieter pint.

Driving through on the Twelfth

The parade closes the A28 through the village. PSNI issues advice every year. Take the back roads or come back tomorrow.

Getting there.

By car

Armagh to Killylea is 8 km (five miles) west on the A28 - about 12 minutes. Caledon and the Tyrone border are another 10 minutes west. Belfast is 1h 15m via the M1 and A3.

By bus

Translink Ulsterbus services on the Armagh-Aughnacloy corridor stop at Killylea. Frequency is modest - check the timetable before planning around it.

By train

No station. Killylea closed on 14 October 1957 with the rest of the GNR branch. The nearest working station is Portadown, about 30 km east, on the Belfast-Newry line.

Next on the tour

Co. Armagh

Armagh

Two cathedrals, the Mall, the planetarium. Twelve minutes east on the A28.

Co. Armagh

Caledon

Estate village on the Blackwater, ten minutes west. The other end of the closed railway.

Co. Armagh

Middletown

Border village in the same Tynan parish, planted by a bishop's bequest.

Co. Armagh

Tynan

Two kilometres south-west, an ancient parish - high cross in the square, the ruins of an abbey in among the trees.

Co. Armagh

Milford

Seven kilometres north-west, mills and millworkers' rows from the linen days - and a footnote in the rulebook of football.