Cappagh
Ceapach

The West Tyrone
STOP 04 / 04

Ceapach · Co. Tyrone

Two miles north of Omagh: a parish, a church, a GAA club with two county titles, and the quiet that comes after the traffic has gone elsewhere.

Cappagh is a civil parish in west Tyrone, two miles north of Omagh on the road towards Strabane. The parish runs across about sixty square miles of drumlin farmland - cattle country, hedged fields, quiet lanes. The village of Cappagh itself is a crossroads and a handful of houses. There is a Church of Ireland church at Mountjoy Forest, a Catholic church at St Mary's on the Killyclogher Road, a parochial house, and the club grounds at Drumnakilly Road. That is more or less the inventory. If you are looking for a street with shops in it, you are in the wrong place.

The one thing that ties the parish together, and that gives it a presence in Tyrone well beyond its size, is the GAA club. Killyclogher St Mary's GAC - formally Killyclogher St. Mary's / Cappagh GAA - has been the parish club since St Mary's registered in 1932. There was an earlier club from 1904, and a hurling side in the late 1940s that won three senior hurling titles before a dispute with the county board ended it. The current club reformed in 1965 and eventually reached the Tyrone Senior Football Championship final in 2003, beating Errigal Ciaran. They won again in 2016. Five senior county finals in twenty years. For a parish of this size, in a county that produces footballers at a rate that unsettles its neighbours, that record is not nothing.

Population

Under 500 (parish village; NISRA 2021 small-area data)

Walk score

A crossroads and a lane. Done in two minutes.

Coords

54.6364° N, 7.2977° W

01 / 04

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 parish

Two miles from Omagh, a world away from it.

Cappagh parish sits in the baronies of Omagh and Strabane, directly north of the county town. The Killyclogher Road runs out from Omagh and into the parish. The land is pastoral - cattle, hedgerows, low drumlins. The village of Cappagh proper is a scattering of houses. Most of the action, such as it is, happens in Killyclogher at the parish's southern end.

Read the letter → 02 The church

St Mary's, Killyclogher Road.

The Catholic parish church of St Mary's stands on the Killyclogher Road at the Omagh edge of the parish. Cappagh is one of the larger Catholic parishes in the Diocese of Derry - more than 12,000 parishioners across a 60 square mile area. The church has a live webcam for those who cannot attend in person.

Stories → 03 The GAA

Tyrone Senior Champions, 2003 and 2016.

Killyclogher St Mary's GAC - the parish club - won the Tyrone Senior Football Championship in 2003 and again in 2016. The 2003 win, over Errigal Ciaran, came after decades of underage promise. The club has appeared in five senior county finals in twenty years. For many in west Tyrone, the club and the parish are the same word.

Club history →

02 / 04

Stories & lore.

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

The parish club

Killyclogher St Mary's GAC: from 1904 to Tyrone champions

Gaelic football has been organised in Cappagh parish since Killyclogher St Patrick's became affiliated in 1904, winning county senior hurling and junior football honours by 1906. St Mary's registered as the parish club in 1932 and won the McAleer Cup in 1932 and 1937. A separate hurling club formed in Knockmoyle in 1947 won three senior hurling titles between 1947 and 1954 before folding after a fixture dispute with the West Tyrone Board and County Board - leaving the parish without an affiliated club from 1954 to 1965. The club reformed in February 1965, rejoined the West Tyrone League in April that year, and spent the next four decades building through underage. The breakthrough came in 2003 with a Tyrone Senior Football Championship win over Errigal Ciaran. A second title followed in 2016. The club ground is at 36 Drumnakilly Road, Omagh. The club runs as a combined club under the name Killyclogher St. Mary's / Cappagh GAA.

Roots in the Diocese of Derry

A 600-year parish

Cappagh parish traces its origins back roughly 600 years, according to the Diocese of Derry. The civil parish includes part of the barony of Omagh and part of the barony of Strabane. Samuel Lewis, writing in his 1837 Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, noted that the parish contained the small village of Mountjoy Forest and that a Church of Ireland church was erected there in 1768, paid for by the then rector Dr Gibson. By Lewis's time the parish had two Catholic chapels, one at Knockmoyle and one at Killyclogher. The same two anchors of parish life - Knockmoyle and Killyclogher - still hold today.

03 / 04

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

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

Driving to Cappagh village expecting a village

The civil address "Cappagh" covers a large rural parish. The crossroads at the centre is not a destination in its own right. If you are looking for a shop, a pub, or a café, go to Omagh, two miles south.

Treating the GAA ground as a tourist site

The Drumnakilly Road ground is a working club facility. Matches are listed on the Tyrone GAA website. Go to a match if you want to see it; don't wander in otherwise.

Getting there.

By car

Leave Omagh on the Killyclogher Road (B48) heading north. Killyclogher, the main built part of the parish, is about 2 km from Omagh town centre. The Cappagh rural heartland continues north from there towards Mountjoy. No significant public parking - roadside only.

By bus

Translink services run between Omagh and Strabane along the B48 corridor. Check the Translink journey planner for current timetables; stops serve Killyclogher rather than Cappagh village proper.

By train

No train. Nearest stations are Portadown or Derry-Londonderry (Waterside), both a significant distance away. Omagh has no rail connection.

By air

City of Derry Airport (LDY) is approximately 45 minutes north-east by car. Belfast International is around 1 hour 15 minutes east.