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Newbliss, Co. Monaghan

Newbliss, Cúil Darach, Co. Monaghan

Cúil Darach · Co. Monaghan

A one-street estate village in west Monaghan drumlin country, and the front door to Annaghmakerrig, the artists' retreat that Tyrone Guthrie left to the nation.

Newbliss (Irish: Cúil Darach, "corner of the oaktrees") is a small estate village in the west of County Monaghan, where the R183 and R189 cross fifteen kilometres south-west of Monaghan town. The older name was Lisdaragh, Lios Darach, "the ringfort of the oaks" - the deeper story under the English name, which only appears in the Ker estate papers from around 1790.

This is drumlin country: small green hills, hidden lakes, hedged fields, a sky that does a lot of the work. The village itself is one wide street, laid out by the Ker family around 1750 and grown fat on flax and linen by 1800. Stand at the crossroads and you can still read the plan - the market house, the two churches on their rises, the houses stepping down the street. It is not a destination in itself. It is a real place that people live in, and a crossroads you pass through on the way to somewhere.

What pulls outsiders here is two miles out the road: Annaghmakerrig, the house the theatre director Tyrone Guthrie left to the nation as an artists' retreat. It is not open to the public in the way a visitor centre is, but its 500 acres of woods and the lake below the Big House have made Newbliss a name that writers and painters know far better than tourists do.

Come for a quiet pint in a hundred-year-old bar, a walk in deep country, and the particular satisfaction of a place that is exactly itself and selling you nothing. Do not come expecting a heritage town. Clones, with its round tower and high cross, is eight kilometres up the road for that.

Population
~327 (2016)
Founded
Estate village laid out by Robert Ker c. 1750
Coords
54.1581° N, 7.1369° W
01 / 07

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 retreat

Annaghmakerrig - the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, on a 500-acre wooded estate two miles from the village.

The theatre director Sir Tyrone Guthrie left his family home to the Irish nation in 1971 to be a retreat for artists. It opened in 1981 and has been quietly turning out novels, plays and paintings ever since. You cannot wander in - it is a working residency - but the lake and the woods are the reason most outsiders ever hear of Newbliss.

Stories & lore → 02 The village

One wide street, a market house, and a Ker-estate plan still legible in the layout.

Robert Ker laid the village out around 1750 and by 1800 the linen trade was thriving. Samuel Lewis in 1837 counted ninety-five houses on one wide street, a Saturday market for pigs and flax, and monthly cattle fairs. The street is still the village. About 327 people.

Walks & outings → 03 Getting in

R183 meets R189 in west Monaghan. The railway is long gone.

Fifteen kilometres south-west of Monaghan town, eight from Clones. The Dundalk to Enniskillen line ran through here from 1855 until it closed for good in 1960. Now it is the roads and the Local Link bus. Plan to drive.

Getting there →
02 / 07

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

Annie McGinn's

Old-fashioned, kept that way on purpose
Traditional pub, Lower Main Street

Bought by Hugh McGinn in 1912 after he had learned the trade running a bar in downtown Manhattan with his brother, and kept in the family for generations. Taken on by Kieran and Emily Quigley in 2017, who have left the traditional feel alone - a piano and a little range in the room they call The Kitchen, a long list of gins and whiskeys. Opens mainly at weekends and takes bookings for groups and functions, so check before you make a special trip.

The Stag Inn

Local, recently done up
Village bar

The other bar in the village, on the main street. A working local that has had a bar refurbishment in recent years. The ordinary, useful sort of pub a small place keeps going - check opening hours, which in a village this size bend to the day of the week.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

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

A theatre director's gift to the nation, 1971

Annaghmakerrig

Sir Tyrone Guthrie - one of the great stage directors of the twentieth century, founder of the Stratford Festival in Ontario and the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis - kept his family home at Annaghmakerrig, two miles south of Newbliss. In his will he left the house and its 500-acre estate to the Irish nation "for the purpose of providing a retreat for artists and other like persons." The state accepted the gift in 1971 and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre opened to guests in 1981. Writers, composers, painters and other artists come for residencies of two weeks to a month, in the Big House or in self-catering cottages on the grounds. One of Guthrie's own conditions survives: everyone staying in the Big House sits down together to a communal dinner at seven each evening. It is funded by the Arts Councils north and south and the Office of Public Works, and run, since 2021, by Dr Eimear O'Connor. You cannot tour it like a stately home, but it is the reason Newbliss punches far above its size in the cultural map of Ireland.

Robert Ker, c. 1750

The Ker estate village

The Ker family came over from Scotland in the late seventeenth century, and Andrew Ker bought the lands here around 1730. Robert Ker laid out the village proper by about 1750, and the linen and flax trade did the rest - by 1800 it was thriving. In 1837 Samuel Lewis described "Newbliss, a market and post-town, in the parish of Killeevan, barony of Dartry," one wide street of ninety-five houses, a Saturday market chiefly for pigs and flax, and a cattle fair the last Saturday of every month. The Murray Ker estate ran to 3,605 acres by 1876. The market is gone and the flax with it, but the planned street is the bones the modern village still hangs on.

1841 and 1855

Two churches and a vanished railway

Newbliss has the two churches an Irish village of its era always has. The Church of Ireland church, built around 1841 in a confident Gothic Revival - tower, belfry and needle spire - sits on a raised, well-treed site that the buildings survey rates a cut above the usual estate church. The Roman Catholic side is served by St Laebhan's. The railway is the loss: Newbliss station opened on 14 August 1855 on the Great Northern line from Dundalk to Enniskillen, closed to passengers on 1 October 1957, and shut altogether on 1 January 1960. The line is one of the great might-have-beens of the border counties. The roads carry everything now.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

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

The village street There is not much more than the one wide street, but walk it properly: the market house, the Church of Ireland on its rise, the line of the planned Ker village. Twenty minutes, longer if you fall into conversation, which here you will.
1 kmdistance
20-30 minutestime
Annaghmakerrig woods and lake The Tyrone Guthrie estate is a working artists' retreat, not a public park, so be discreet and respect that people are there to work - but the woods and the lakeshore below the Big House are the finest walking near the village. Two miles south of Newbliss. Soft underfoot after rain.
3-5 kmdistance
1-1.5 hourstime
Drumlin roads Pick any of the quiet boreens out of the crossroads and you are into proper west Monaghan drumlin country - small hills, hidden water, hedges, almost no traffic. Bring boots and a sense of direction; the lanes wander.
4-6 kmdistance
1-2 hourstime
05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring
Mar-May

The drumlins green up and the Annaghmakerrig woods come alive. Long quiet light, few people.

◉ Go
Summer
Jun-Aug

Settled weather, the best of the walking, the pubs more reliably open. The kindest season for a place with no indoor attractions.

◉ Go
Autumn
Sep-Oct

The woods turn and the low border light is at its best. A good month for the lake.

◉ Go
Winter
Nov-Feb

Grey, wet and short-dayed. The pubs keep going at weekends but there is little to do outdoors when the lanes are flooded.

◐ Mind yourself
06 / 07

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

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

×
Turning up at Annaghmakerrig expecting a tour

The Tyrone Guthrie Centre is a residential retreat for working artists, not a visitor attraction. There is no ticket desk, no cafe, no gift shop. Admire the woods and the gate, respect the privacy of the people inside, and read about it instead of barging in.

×
Expecting a heritage town

Newbliss is one street, two pubs and two churches. That is the whole offer and it is an honest one. If you want a round tower, a high cross and a proper day out, Clones is eight kilometres up the road.

×
Counting on the pubs being open

Both village bars lean to weekend hours and bookings. Mid-week, on a quiet Tuesday, you may find a closed door. Phone ahead or come Friday to Sunday.

+

Getting there.

By car

Monaghan town is about 20 minutes north-east, Clones 10 minutes west, Cavan around 30 minutes south. The R183 and R189 meet in the village. You will want a car here.

By bus

Local Link route 176 links Newbliss with Cavan and Monaghan. Rural frequencies, so check the timetable before you rely on it.

By train

No railway - the line through Newbliss closed in 1960. The nearest mainline station is Clones-area connections aside, effectively Dundalk or Dublin Connolly via Monaghan by bus. Driving is the realistic option.

Next on the tour

Co. Monaghan
Drum
A few miles north, a rare Protestant-majority village: four churches, two Orange lodges, an accordion band, and not a single pub.
Co. Monaghan
Smithborough
Eight kilometres south on the Clones road, where the fair day still pulls the whole drumlin country in for an afternoon.
Co. Monaghan
Clones
Eight kilometres west. The proper heritage town of this corner - round tower, an early high cross on the Diamond, the old monastic site and the Ulster Canal stores. The day out Newbliss is not.
Co. Monaghan
Rockcorry
A neighbouring estate village to the east, much the same drumlin-country quiet. A short hop on the back roads.
Co. Monaghan
Scotshouse
Tiny village to the south-west towards the border and Lough Erne. Another quiet crossroads in the same landscape.
Co. Monaghan
Ballybay
A small market town south-east, on its own lake. Bigger than Newbliss, with a few more pubs and a shop or two.