Rivers, remembrance and the Sperrins
Omagh
A west Tyrone county town where the Drumragh and Camowen meet to form the Strule, with arts, Gaelic games and the Sperrin Mountains close by.
- Best for
- Riverside paths, Sperrin landscapes and emigration history
- Give it
- Town sights plus a trip north
- Don't miss
- The Brig Union at the Ulster American Folk Park
Photo: Kenneth Allen · CC BY-SA 2.0 · cropped
The Fox verdict
A county town at the gateway to the Sperrins
Omagh brings together river paths, public remembrance, an arts venue and access to the uplands north of town.
The Drumragh and Camowen meet here to form the Strule, and land north-east of Omagh rises towards the Sperrins. In town, Strule Arts Centre overlooks the river, while Grange Park offers picnic facilities and an eco-trail. Farther north, Gortin Glen Forest Park and the Ulster American Folk Park broaden the visit.
Where to go
Places in Omagh
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesStrule Arts Centre
An events venue opened in 2007 with a theatre and gallery.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 90 minutes
- Locality
- Omagh town centre
Ulster American Folk Park
An open-air museum of Irish-American emigration with more than 30 buildings, Old World and New World sections, and the full-size Brig Union emigrant ship.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 150 minutes
- Locality
- Castletown/Camphill
Gortin Glen Forest Park
A woodland park in the Owenkillew valley with a forest drive and waymarked woodland trails.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 90 minutes
- Locality
- near Gortin village
Walks & outdoors
1 placeSperrin Mountains AONB
A designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty with rounded summits, moorland and blanket bog, reaching 678 m at Sawel Mountain.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 120 minutes
- Locality
- north of Omagh
History & heritage
2 places
Church of the Sacred Heart
A Roman Catholic parish church whose twin spires dominate the Omagh skyline.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 30 minutes
- Locality
- Omagh
An Creagan
A heritage and visitor centre in the Sperrins at Creggan.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 75 minutes
- Locality
- Creggan
Things to do
2 placesGrange Park
A council flagship open space with picnic facilities and an eco-trail.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 60 minutes
- Locality
- Omagh
- Access
- The play park fully reopened following cleansing and safety checks.
Omagh Leisure Complex
A council leisure centre with swimming pools, a running track and a 4G sports pitch.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 90 minutes
- Locality
- Omagh
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Three ways to explore Omagh
Signature outings
Omagh's twin spires
Look up Omagh's rising High Street: the courthouse stands in front of the Sacred Heart's asymmetric twin spires, bringing two town landmarks into one view.
See the rounded Sperrin summits
Gortin Glen Forest Park provides a western approach to the Sperrins, with woodland trails and views towards the higher ridges.
Board the Brig Union
The Folk Park has more than 30 buildings across its Old World and New World sections, plus the full-size Brig Union at the dockside.
The town story
Omagh: the Strule, remembrance and the Sperrins
A west Tyrone county town shaped by converging rivers, upland landscapes, remembrance and emigration.
At the river confluence
High Street climbs past the courthouse, with the Sacred Heart's twin spires rising behind it. The Drumragh and Camowen converge in the town centre to form the Strule, and riverside paths follow the town's water-edge setting.
Omagh is Tyrone's county town and a commercial centre for a wide rural hinterland. High Street shops sit alongside the Showgrounds and Great Northern retail parks.
Parks, paths and culture
Six miles north of Omagh, Gortin Glen Forest Park marks the western gateway to the Sperrins. Woodland trails and a forest drive pass through rounded ridges, moorland and bog; Grange Park nearer town adds an eco-trail and picnic facilities.
Pools, a running track and a 4G pitch make Omagh Leisure Complex a town recreation option. Gaelic games centre on Healy Park, while Strule Arts Centre on Townhall Square hosts theatre and exhibitions.
The courthouse and a place of remembrance
Omagh Courthouse stands at the top of High Street. Built from 1814 to 1822 to designs by John Hargrave, the B+ listed building has four Doric columns, a clock-faced pediment and a south wing added in 1863.
On 15 August 1998, a Real IRA car bomb on Market Street killed 29 people and two unborn children, and injured hundreds. The Memorial Garden and Market Street monument commemorate the loss; mirrors direct sunlight towards a glass heart.
Across the Atlantic, through Omagh's names
The Ulster American Folk Park north of Omagh follows emigration from rural Ulster across the Atlantic. Built around Thomas Mellon's birthplace, it brings historic buildings and the replica Brig Union into the story.
Omagh's literary connections include playwright Brian Friel, born nearby, and songwriter Jimmy Kennedy, an Omagh native linked with "Teddy Bears' Picnic."
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A guide with a point of view
Written from research. Edited for real journeys.
Use the Official site links for live practical details, then use this guide for context, ideas and room to explore.
Photography credits & licences
Third-party photographs are credited to their named creators and reused under the linked Creative Commons licence or public-domain dedication. Travel Fox stores an optimised local copy; the file-specific changes and any browser-applied display crop are disclosed below. Reused photographs link both to the Wikimedia Commons source record and to the declared source image; Travel Fox's own photographs carry no such record and are marked as ours. These image licences do not cover Travel Fox text, branding or page design.
- File:Scaffolding, Sacred Heart Church, Omagh - geograph.org.uk - 3752835.jpg — photograph by Kenneth Allen; Scaffolding, Sacred Heart Church, Omagh by Kenneth Allen. Source record on Wikimedia Commons. Declared source image. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0. File changes: Downloaded from Wikimedia Commons, resized to a maximum 1920px edge and encoded as an optimised JPEG. Display changes: Displayed with responsive CSS cropping.
Sources
Every place on this page is checked against a published source. Each entry links the record we used and names who publishes it.
- Church of the Sacred Heart — drumraghparish.com other published source
- Grange Park — fermanaghomagh.com other published source
- Omagh Leisure Complex — fermanaghomagh.com operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Strule Arts Centre — struleartscentre.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Ulster American Folk Park — ulsteramericanfolkpark.org operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Gortin Glen Forest Park — nidirect.gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Sperrin Mountains AONB — daera-ni.gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- An Creagan — ancreagan.com operator, sector body or destination organisation