//
This is claimed to have been the burial place of St Patrick in 461, with St Brigid and St Columba alongside. Multiple churches since that time have been swept away: the present Church of Ireland (Anglican) building from 1818 set out to be so relentlessly medieval Gothic that truly medieval material survives only in traces. These include two 12th-century crosses, an 11th-century font, and part of the walls of the 13th-century Benedictine Abbey. The High Cross is a replica: the 10th-century original suffered weathering and was moved to the nearby museum. A massive granite slab was placed over St Patrick's grave in 1900, to curb a fashion among emigrants of taking a handful of soil away with them.
© OpenStreetMap contributors
This was the county jail in the late 18th century, and United Irishman Thomas Russell was hanged at its gates in 1803. The museum permanent collections cover an overview of town history, the High Cross, farming and the jail.
If you don't know much about the "real" St Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, you're in good company — most detail is the invention of later hagiographers. The medieval Armagh scholars were especially busy and inventive, since the primacy of their church depended on the primacy of St Patrick. This gallery and IMAX show explores what we know and why he still matters.
Founded before AD 800 on what was then a drumlin island in the marshes. The present ruins are from the 12th-century Cistercian Abbey, which looks to have been small but wealthy. The Cistercians believed in manual labour, farming to support themselves, as well as prayer, abstinence, and above all No damned Irish! The ruins are scenically sited on the west bank of the River Quoile: either approach via A7 Belfast Road or take the steam railway to the Abbey station.
This has National Hunt (jumps) meetings, mostly Mar-Oct. Horse-racing is on an all-Ireland basis so the course follows the Irish not the UK race season.
18-hole golf course founded in 1929, course is 5969 yards par 69. With pro shop and restaurant.
Sruthail means stream. It flows down a rocky valley, partly underground, supplying a series of wells with supposed healing or holy properties. Inevitably Saint Patrick gets in on the act, but the site predates him. There are four main wells, and the bath houses you see now are from the 17th century. Pilgrims conducted complicated penances and observances, but in the 19th century they became rowdy so there was a clamp-down. The wells dried up around 2006 when the culverts feeding them fell into disrepair, but this has been remedied.