Town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland

Lurgan

Named after a shin, Lurgan gave the world a mystic poet, a Celtic captain and a Victorian 'castle' that locals simply call the Castle.

Key information

County: County Armagh
Nation: Northern Ireland
Known for: Linen, Brownlow House, Lurgan Park, Glenavon FC
What locals are called: Lurgan folk
Famous people: George William Russell (AE), Neil Lennon
Football clubs: Glenavon (the Lurgan Blues), Lurgan Celtic

About Lurgan

The town named after a shin

Lurgan takes its name from the Irish An Lorgain, meaning a shin. The word was used for a long, low ridge of land, and the town sits along just such a rise on the south-east side of Lough Neagh. It's a neat bit of everyday geography. Nobody was naming a town after a leg. They were describing what the land looked like from the lough plain.

How linen built the place

Lurgan's modern story starts with the Plantation. In the early 1600s the English settler William Brownlow was granted land here, and his family shaped the town for the next three centuries. The Brownlows encouraged weavers to settle, and Lurgan became a linen town. Its speciality was fine cloth and hand-embroidered handkerchiefs, made in small workshops and in the big mills that followed. Flax, water and skilled hands put Lurgan on the map of Ulster's linen belt. That tradition is why the town centre has such a solid Victorian look, with terraces and civic buildings paid for by a prosperous trade.

The 'Castle' that isn't quite a castle

The grandest building in town is Brownlow House, built in 1833 for Charles Brownlow, later the first Lord Lurgan. The architect was William Henry Playfair, better known for his work in Edinburgh, and he gave Lurgan a big Elizabethan-style mansion with turrets and chimneys. Everyone calls it Lurgan Castle. It looks the part, sitting above the town at the edge of what was once the family's demesne, and it remains one of the most recognisable buildings in County Armagh.

A park with a lake and a rally route

Lurgan Park was once the grounds of the Brownlow estate and is now the town's great green space, with a boating lake, mature trees and long avenues. Those avenues have had a second life. The park's roads have been used for the Lurgan Park Rally, a car rally that brought competitors and spectators into the grounds, though it's normally a quiet place for dog walks and picnics. A short drive north, Oxford Island on the shore of Lough Neagh gives the town a nature reserve and some of the best lough views around.

A mystic poet and a Celtic captain

George William Russell was born in Lurgan in 1867. He wrote poetry and painted visions, and he edited the Irish Homestead. He is better known by his pen name AE, which the story says came from a printer who couldn't read the signature 'Aeon' and kept only the first two letters. He was a close friend of W. B. Yeats and a leading figure of the Irish literary revival. Neil Lennon grew up in Lurgan, played for Northern Ireland and captained Celtic, later managing the Glasgow club. He was due to captain Northern Ireland for the first time against Cyprus in August 2002, but withdrew after receiving a death threat. The town's other great sporting name is its football club. Glenavon, founded in 1889 and nicknamed the Lurgan Blues, play at Mourneview Park and have won the Irish League and the Irish Cup.