Guide to County Tyrone in Ireland

County Tyrone

County Tyrone is the second largest of the nine counties of Ulster and the largest of the six counties of Northern Ireland. It has an area of 3,155 square kilometres.

The county borders the Northern Ireland counties of Armagh to the south-east, Fermanagh to the south-west and County Londonderry to the north-east. The county also borders Lough Neagh to the east. The borders with the Republic of Ireland are County Monaghan to the south and County Donegal to the north-west.

Historically Tyrone once stretched as far north as Lough Foyle, and comprised part of modern day County Londonderry east of the River Foyle. The current county town is Omagh, although that honour once belonged to Dungannon over 200 years ago. Omagh has a population of just under 25,000 making it the largest town in Tyrone also, and it is situated where the rivers Drumragh and Carnowen meet to form the River Strule.

The second largest town in the county is Strabane, over in the west virtually on the border with Donegal and the Republic of Ireland. The River Foyle separates the North from the Republic at this point, and Donegal´s county town of Lifford is less than 3 miles away across the busy Lifford Bridge. Strabane´s population is estimated to be currently around the 16,000 mark.

Other places of interest in Tyrone include Coalisland, Fivemiletown, Castlederg, Pomeroy (the highest village in the county), Carrickmore (or The Rock, another elevated village) and Cookstown.