For just over a century Fintona ran a tram pulled by a horse, and the horse was always called Dick. From 1853 the little van shuttled the mile between the town and Fintona Junction station, where the main line ran, and it kept going until 30 September 1957, by which time it was the second-last public horse tram in the British Isles. (One claim goes further: that the Fintona line was the first permanent horse tramway in Europe.) The tram itself survives, but not here, so don’t come expecting to see it: it’s preserved at the Ulster Transport Museum near Belfast. What’s left in Fintona is the story and the welcome signs, which still show Dick hauling the van with driver, conductor and a passenger up top.
Fintona is a working County Tyrone village of 1,217 people, one of the county’s oldest, grown up from a Uí Néill fortress of 1431, eight miles south of Omagh. It isn’t a tourist town, and it doesn’t pretend to be.
Golf and Ecclesville
By the late 1600s the Eccles family were the main landowners, and their manor house, built in 1703, stood on what is now the golf course and Ecclesville Park. Fintona Golf Club, founded in 1904 on the Ecclesville demesne, is a parkland nine-hole course with different tees on the second nine, and it has a real reputation: Ronan Rafferty rated it the best nine-hole course in Northern Ireland on his UTV golf series. There’s a clubhouse bar and restaurant.
Next door, the Ecclesville Centre opened in 1995, pairing an equestrian complex (indoor and outdoor floodlit arenas and stables) with a leisure side of sports hall, fitness suite and all-weather tennis courts. It hosts regional competitions and the annual National Charolais Show in June. Around it, Ecclesville Park has a playground, an outdoor gym, a pond and woodland paths.
Murley Mountain and the river
About four miles to the southeast, roughly halfway to Fivemiletown, the land rises to Murley Mountain, 312m (1,024ft) and known locally as Fivemiletown Mountain or Stranisk Hill. Two wind farms share the peak, Lendrums Bridge (2000) and Hunters Hill (2008), so it’s a working hill rather than a wilderness one. The Quiggery Water rises on its northern slopes and runs through the village, eventually joining other streams to form the River Strule.
A wartime footnote
During the Second World War, Ecclesville House served as headquarters for the 135th Infantry Regiment of the US Army’s 34th Infantry Division. There’s a photograph from November 1942 of their vehicles being washed down in the Quiggery River, with King Street, the police barracks and US Army Nissen huts in the background.
Practical information
- Getting there: off the B122 to Omagh and the A5; free on-street parking on Main Street and at Ecclesville Park. Ulsterbus service 87 runs to Omagh on weekdays and Saturdays, with no Sunday service.
- Churches: St Lawrence’s Catholic Church, completed in 1841, stands less than a mile from the town in the townland of Lisnabulreavy; Donacavey Parish Church (Church of Ireland) is the other main one.
- Nearby: Omagh, a short drive away, has the shops and the Ulster American Folk Park.
If you’ve a real interest in railway oddities, the honest plan is to read the Fintona story here, then go to the Ulster Transport Museum to actually stand beside Dick’s tram. Otherwise, the golf course is the best reason to stop.