58 Old Ruins to Explore in Ulster

The Colmcille Heritage Centre is situated on a very scenic lakeside site with walks along the lakeside. It endeavours to give an appreciation of a period in Irish and European history at the end of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the Medieval period.

Down Cathedral is a Church of Ireland cathedral. It stands on the site of a Benedictine Monastery, built in 1183. Saint Patrick's remains are buried on the site. Magnificent stain glass windows, box pews and beautiful organ case enhances this interesting building. Souvenir shop and toilet facilities. It is one of two cathedrals in the Diocese of Down and Dromore in the County of Ulster. The cathedral is centre point in Downpatrick.

Drumlane's round tower is an impressive historic monument located in a monastic site in Milltown, County Cavan. Founded in 555 AD by Saint Columba, the tower stands near an abbey and church and remains an enduring tourist attraction in Cavan today. All that remains today are the remains of a round tower and gothic style church from the medieval period.

Drumskinny is the site of a stone circle in the townland of Drumskinny, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. This stone circle is part of a complex of five in this immediate locality, dating back to the new stone age, 2250 B.C. The purpose of the circle, made up of 39 stones and a small round cairn, is unknown but probably involved that of religious practices, astronomical observations and calendar functions.

Enniskillen Castle, situated beside the River Erne, was built almost 600 years ago by the ruling Gaelic Maguires. The historic site houses Fermanagh County Museum and The Inniskillings Museum. The castle remained in Irish hands until it fell to the crown's Irish ally, Niall Garve O'Donnell in the summer of 1602. Its award winning exhibitions cover the prehistory and natural history of Fermanagh, the county’s traditional rural life, local crafts and the celebrated pottery at Belleek.

This old graveyard known as the Famine Graveyard and also the Paupers Graveyard is the site of the burials of victims of the Great Irish Famine 1845-1849 and of the poor generally. There are no marked graves. There are probably hundreds of people buried here, possibly a thousand or more. It lay nearby the old Donegal Town Workhouse. A lone cross and a few plaques commemorate the burials.

Finn McCools Fingers are a set of five standing stones on Shantemon mountain in County Cavan. The name is derived from the story that giant Celtic warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill lost a hand in battle. The stones are arranged in a south-east/north-west orientation.

Florence Court is a large 18th-century house and estate located 8 miles south-west of Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is set in the foothills of Cuilcagh Mountain. The house enjoys a peaceful setting in west Fermanagh, with a startlingly beautiful backdrop of mountains and forests. There are many glorious walks to enjoy, as well as fine vistas and play areas in the outstanding grounds.

Glenveagh Castle is a 19th century castellated mansion and was built between 1867 and 1873. Its construction in a remote mountain setting was inspired by the Victorian idyll of a romantic highland retreat. It is built in the Scottish baronial architectural style and consists of a four-story rectangular keep, surrounded by a garden, and a backdrop of some 165.4 km2 of mountains, lakes, glens and woods complete with a herd of red deer.

The Glenveagh Castle Gardens are part of Glenveagh National Park in the north west of County Donegal. The site occupied by the castle and gardens was formerly wild mountain moorland, with construction of the castle beginning in 1869 and the gardens in the mid 1880s. Tree rhododendrons and magnolias grace the woods with under-plantings of azaleas, hostas, astilbes and rodgersias.

This is a 19th-century country house situated in Gosford, a townland of Markethill, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It was built for The 2nd Earl of Gosford, and designed in the Norman revival style by London architect Thomas Hopper. It is a Grade A listed building,and is said to be Ulster's largest. The Earls of Gosford occupied the castle until 1921, and the estate was later purchased by the Ministry of Agriculture to form Gosford Forest Park.

A ruined Cistercian monastery on the outskirts of Downpatrick, County Down, Northern Ireland. It was founded by Anglo-Norman John de Courcy in the twelfth century at the site of a previous monastery which had operated from the 9th until earlier in the 12th century. De Courcy established the monastery as penance for his destruction of Erenagh Abbey in 1177.

A beautiful castle situated at the extreme seaward end of Inch Island. It was built in the middle of the fifteenth century but, by 1609, when granted to Sir Arthur Chichester, he stated that it was in a state of disrepair. It came to form part of the defensive network of O'Doherty fortifications designed to protect them from rival clans and to overawe those who accepted their overlordship.

Jordan's Castle is a castle situated in Ardglass, County Down, Northern Ireland. The tower house known as Jordan's Castle is a State Care Historic Monument sited in the townland of Ardglass, in the Newry, Mourne and Down District Council area, at grid ref: J5601 3713. It stands close to the junction of Kildare and Quay Streets in Ardglass and commands the harbour.

A beautiful tower house built between 1413 and 1441, reputedly by John Sely, bishop of Down. Features include a machicolation arch, projecting towers and spiral staircases.The castle is tall with four floors. The first floor is vaulted in stone, with two projecting turrets. One contains a spiral stair and the other a series of garderobes with access from three of the four floors These unusual features may have been a blueprint for those at Ardglass, Strangford and various other sites.

The Kilclooney Dolmen is a portal-tome or dolmen, prominent on the skyline north-north-west of Ardara. It well displays the classic features from which this type of monument derives its name. The monument comprises a huge capstone approximately four by six meters, supported by two 1.8 meter uprights, known as portals and a back stone on which the capstone rests. A notable feature of the back stone is the chocking stone.

This tower house was built after a petition to the Bishop of Down in 1570 by Captain Thomas Browne. iT commands a position at the north end of Mahee Island in Strangford Lough. Today, it is badly ruined but still of considerable interest. Visitors should park at Nendrum Monastic Site and walk back to the Castle.

Milford House was the one of its age. The most technologically advanced house in 19th century Ireland - the first in Ireland to be lit with hydro electricity. The creation of Robert Garmany McCrum, self made industrialist, benefactor and inventor who revolutionized the linen industry. His son William invented the penalty kick rule in football and his daughter Harriette was a founding member of the women’s suffragette movement in Ireland.

This cairn is next to an abandoned house. The excavations of this tomb occured in 1953, and the bones of at least 15 persons were found, all sorted by bones type, all the skulls together in a stack, all the long bones in another stack and so on. But since then things have changed a lot here, and most of the tomb revealed after the excavations is now lost again under the mound. Only a dozen stones are visible, with heights around 50-60 centimetres.