Drumbo, Droim Bó, Co. Down

Droim Bó · Co. Down

A round tower stump in a Presbyterian graveyard, ten kilometres south of Belfast.

Drumbo means ridge of the cow - Droim Bó - and the ridge is the point. The village sits where the drumlins of north Down start to ease down into the Lagan Valley, ten kilometres south of Belfast city centre, five kilometres east of Lisburn and five kilometres west of Carryduff. From the high ground the river is laid out below you, and a thousand years ago a community of monks built a round tower here precisely because of that view: a beacon, a watchtower, somewhere to hide the books when the Vikings came up the Lagan looking for them.

The tower is still there. Truncated to about ten metres, the upper sixty feet gone, the stump in the graveyard of the Presbyterian church. It was already standing when the Miscellaneous Irish Annals recorded in 1130 that Druim Both, with its round tower, oratory and books, was plundered by Conor son of Artgal MacLochlainn. That is the village's mention in history. The early monastery vanished afterwards, the medieval parish church that replaced it left only foundations in the grass, and the current Presbyterian church was built alongside the ruins of both. In a country full of round towers, this one has fewer visitors than most - there is no car park, no visitor centre, no tea room. You drive up, you read the small sign, you stand in the graveyard for ten minutes, and you drive away.

The rest of the village is a junction with a wrought-iron pump in the middle of it, a Presbyterian church, a village hall, a playing field down Front Road, and a scatter of houses. The pub people associate with this corner of north Down - Bob Stewart's at Edenderry - is half a mile down the hill toward the Lagan. The Pheasant out at Annahilt is the dinner option, fifteen minutes south. Belfast is twenty minutes north on the A24 and Lisburn is ten west on the back roads. Drumbo is somewhere people live, not somewhere people stop. Make the tower the reason, and the rest is bonus.

Population

~1,000

Walk score

Pump, church, tower stump - three minutes corner to corner

Founded

Monastic site by the 9th century; round tower plundered 1130

Coords

54.5111° N, 5.9472° 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 tower

Ten metres of a thousand-year-old monastery.

The Drumbo round tower stands in the graveyard of the Presbyterian church - truncated, ten and a bit metres of it left, the rest gone. Originally about eighty feet tall. Plundered by Conor MacLochlainn in 1130. The foundations of the medieval parish church sit beside it in the grass.

Stories & lore → 02 The pump

A wrought-iron crank at the crossroads.

The middle of the village is a junction with a wrought-iron water pump on it - a double-wheel crank, listed, painted, still standing. The Presbyterian church, the village hall and the round tower all sit within thirty paces of the pump. That is most of Drumbo.

Walks & outings → 03 The ridge

Where the drumlins drop into the Lagan.

Drumbo sits on the edge of the drumlin country, where the small hills of north Down begin to fall away into the Lagan Valley. The tower was built up here because you can see the river from it. In 900 AD that meant Vikings; today it just means the view.

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 thousand years of stump

The round tower

The Drumbo round tower - Cloigtheach Druim Bó in Irish - was built in the early medieval period as part of a monastery on the ridge above the Lagan. The lower ten and a bit metres survive, five metres in diameter, walls nearly one metre thick. The top half is gone; the level cap is a modern repair. At its original height of around twenty-four metres it would have been a beacon visible the length of the valley. It is mentioned in the Miscellaneous Irish Annals under the year 1130, when Conor son of Artgal MacLochlainn plundered the place, its tower, its oratory and its books. After the Anglo-Norman arrival the monastery was replaced by a parish church on the same ground; only foundations of that survive. The Presbyterian congregation built their own church alongside in the 1700s. The tower is a Scheduled Historic Monument and it sits, unflagged and free, in the graveyard. You can walk up to it any time the gate is open.

A bleach green into a damask factory

The Edenderry mill

Half a mile down the hill from the village, at Edenderry on the bank of the Lagan, the Russell family ran a bleach green from 1780 - laying out linen on the grass to bleach in the sun, the standard finishing stage for the Ulster cloth trade. By the 1830s they had built a flour mill on the river instead. In 1866 John Shaw Brown, a Lisburn linen manufacturer, bought the mill and converted it into a weaving factory - the St Ellen Works, eventually housing five hundred damask looms and employing four hundred people. Damask was the high end of the linen trade: figured table linen, heavy and reversible, the kind that went onto ocean liners and into hotels. Edenderry village was built around the mill for the workers. The works are gone; the village remains, with its own listed church and the bones of an industrial settlement attached to a farming parish.

A twelfth-century earthwork in Edenderry

The Norman motte

In the townland of Edenderry, between Drumbo village and the Lagan, there is a Norman motte - an earthen mound thrown up in the late twelfth century to take a wooden fort on top. The Normans built dozens of these across the north of Ireland in the decades after John de Courcy's invasion of Ulster in 1177. Most are now grassy bumps with sheep on them, and this one is no different. It overlooks the river. The fort that stood on it is long gone. The monks who built the round tower on the ridge above were already three centuries dead by then.

Belfast to Drumbo, slowly

Bus 13

Translink's Ulsterbus route 13 runs from Belfast to Drumbo via Newtownbreda and the Saintfield Road. It is the kind of country bus route that exists because someone has to get to a doctor's appointment, not because it is a tourist service - a handful of journeys a day, mostly weekday, the kind of timetable you check twice. If you do not drive, it is how you get here. If you do drive, it is a useful thing to know exists.

03 / 06

Things to do outside.

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

The tower and the pump From the village pump at the junction, walk to the Presbyterian church gate, into the graveyard, around the stump of the round tower, past the foundations of the medieval parish church, back out. This is the whole reason to be here. Do not rush it. Read the small interpretive sign.

300 metresdistance

10 minutestime

Lagan Towpath at Edenderry Drive five minutes down the hill to Edenderry or Shaw's Bridge and pick up the Lagan Towpath - the surfaced path that follows the river all the way from Belfast to Lisburn. Flat, traffic-free, suitable for everything from buggies to road bikes. Walk north toward Minnowburn and Shaw's Bridge for the woodland section; south toward Drumbeg and Lisburn for the village stretch.

Variabledistance

1-3 hourstime

Edenderry village A short walk around the old mill village downhill from Drumbo - the listed Presbyterian church, the rows of mill workers' houses, the lane down to the river. The St Ellen Works are gone but the settlement they built remains. Bob Stewart's bar is at the corner if you want to make an afternoon of it.

1 kmdistance

20 minutestime

04 / 06

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Lagan Towpath at its best - bluebells in the woodland sections, the river full, the drumlin fields greening. The tower graveyard is quiet.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long evenings, the towpath busy with cyclists and dog-walkers from Belfast, and the village hall hosting the occasional event. The tower is in the open - no shade - so pick a softer hour.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

The drumlin country at its best - low light, the Lagan in the valley, the leaves going on the towpath. The locals' favourite time.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Dark by half four, the graveyard wet underfoot, the towpath at Edenderry boggy in patches. The tower still stands. Bring boots.

◐ 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 town centre

There isn't one. Drumbo is a junction, a pump, a church and a tower. The shops are in Lisburn or Carryduff. The petrol station is on the A24. Come for what is here and accept the rest.

Driving up looking for the pub

There is no pub in Drumbo village. The local is Bob Stewart's at Edenderry, half a mile down the hill toward the Lagan. The dinner option is The Pheasant at Annahilt, fifteen minutes south. If you want a pint, you drive.

Confusing it with Drumbo Park

Drumbo Park is the former greyhound stadium near Lisburn - a different place, three miles west, named for the parish rather than the village. Sat-navs trip on this. Set the destination to the Presbyterian church if you want the tower.

Getting there.

By car

Belfast city centre to Drumbo is 20 minutes on the A24 then off at Newtownbreda onto the back roads - about ten kilometres. Lisburn is 10 minutes west via Ballyskeagh or Hilden. The M1 is the fastest route in from the west - exit at Sprucefield and across.

By bus

Translink Ulsterbus route 13 runs Belfast to Drumbo via Newtownbreda and the Saintfield Road - a country service, a handful of journeys a day, mostly weekday. Check the timetable before you rely on it.

By train

No train. The nearest stations are Lisburn (10 minutes by car) and Belfast Lanyon Place (20 minutes). NIR does not serve this side of the Lagan.

By air

Belfast International (BFS) is 30 minutes by car via the M1. Belfast City (BHD) is 25 minutes through the city.