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seasonal · Saturday 4 July 2026 · Various 
From Blossom to Bottle - Orchard Tour at Armagh Cider Company
At Armagh Cider Company - Ballinteggart House · Ballinteggart House, Portadown Road, Richhill, Co. Armagh
At Armagh Cider Company - Ballinteggart House · Ballinteggart House, Portadown Road, Richhill, Co. Armagh
The Armagh Cider Company’s From Blossom to Bottle tour is one of the most satisfying food-and-drink experiences in Ulster - a proper working farm visit that follows real cider from the orchard to the glass. The Troughton family have grown apples at Ballinteggart House since 1898, and the whole 80-acre estate is still in production. This is not a heritage display; it is a live cidery running through summer, and the guided tour takes you inside every stage of it. Good for couples, food-curious visitors, and anyone who wants to understand why Armagh is known as the Orchard County.
The tour runs for roughly 1.5 hours and moves through three distinct phases. First, you walk the orchards themselves - the family grows around 30 varieties of apple, including the Armagh Bramley, which holds Protected Geographical Indication status (PGI, awarded 2012), the same designation as Champagne or Parmigiano-Reggiano. Among the trees you get freshly pressed apple juice and locally made shortbread, and the guide covers the apple-growing calendar and what makes the Armagh Bramley distinct.
The tour then moves into the cidery, where you see the pressing, fermentation and maturation process in action. After that comes the bottling hall - cider, apple juice and soft drinks all leave Ballinteggart in bottles labelled and packed on site. The tour ends with a guided tasting of Armagh Cider Company’s award-winning ciders in an 18th-century barn.
An alternative option pairs the tour with an orchard picnic - worth checking the booking page if you want a longer afternoon of it.
Ballinteggart House sits on the Portadown Road outside Richhill, about 8 km south-east of Armagh city. A car is the straightforward way to get there; the estate is well signposted from the Richhill direction. Armagh itself is reached via the M1 motorway from Belfast (about 40 minutes) or cross-border on the N1/A1 from Dublin (roughly 1 hour 45 minutes). Translink buses connect Armagh city with Belfast and Newry, but onward travel to Richhill requires a car or taxi. Parking is available at the farm.
Armagh city is worth a proper visit before or after: two cathedrals on neighbouring hills, the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, and a market town centre that still feels like itself. There is more to see in Armagh and across Co. Armagh.
Heading to Armagh Cider Company - Ballinteggart House in Armagh? Armagh has plenty more to see. Read the Armagh area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.