Fivemiletown is named for a measurement: it sits five Irish miles from each of its neighbours – Clogher, Brookeborough and Tempo – an Irish mile being 1.27 statute miles, or about 2,044 metres. It’s a village of around 1,300 people strung along the A4 in the Clogher Valley of south-west Tyrone, near the Fermanagh border. Be straight about it: there’s no headline attraction here, and the one thing the place was famous for is winding down. What it’s good for is a quiet base for the countryside around it.
That famous thing is the cheese. Fivemiletown Creamery was set up as a farmers’ co-operative in 1898 by Hugh de Fellonburg Montgomery, and its handmade cheeses – Ballybrie, the blue Ballyblue, the smoked Ballyoak, Oakwood and the Fivemiletown cheddars – carried the village’s name onto shelves across Europe and North America. The honest update: Dale Farm ended its lease on the site and cheese production there ceased in 2026, though the brand survives and Fivemiletown goat’s cheese is still made. So treat the creamery as the village’s claim to fame rather than a place to tour – it never was a visitor attraction, beyond occasional open days announced locally.
A bit of history
The settlement was laid out as a planned village in 1619 by Sir William Stewart, who first called it Mount Stewart, and it later went by Blessingbourne; the older Irish name was Baile na Lorgan, ‘townland of the long ridge’. The landmark on Main Street is the Victorian station house of the Clogher Valley Railway, a narrow-gauge line that opened on 2 May 1887 and trundled along at a top speed of 10 mph until the last train ran on the final day of 1941. There is a harder memory too: in December 1993 two off-duty RUC officers were shot dead on Main Street by the IRA, one of the village’s incidents of the Troubles.
The countryside
This is the reason to come. Blessingbourne Estate, on the edge of the village, has waymarked mountain-bike trails and is set up for cycling and dog-walking around its lake and woodland – the best single outdoor stop here. The Forest Stables, a BHS-approved riding school about ten minutes out, runs treks through the forests and foothills of Tyrone and Fermanagh, with quiet ponies for beginners, prices from around £10 and a river trail; it’s open by arrangement, so ring ahead. For walking there’s Crocknagrally Forest, and the Fermanagh Lakelands – the open water of Lough Erne is roughly 20 minutes away – for fishing and boating.
Above the village, Murley Mountain rises to 312m, topped by the 20 turbines of the Lendrums Bridge wind farm, which double as a landmark you can navigate by from half the valley. The River Blackwater rises just north of the town. The village itself has a nine-hole parkland golf course at Clogher Valley Golf Club, a swimming pool and a bowling green.
Practical information
The A4 Enniskillen–Dungannon road runs straight through the village (a one-way system keeps the main street moving), about 16 miles east of Enniskillen and 26 miles west of Dungannon – signs here are in miles. Buses link Fivemiletown with Dungannon and Enniskillen; check Translink for current times. There’s free on-street parking on the main street, which fills at weekends. Shops, pubs and the basics are all on the one street.
Nearby
- Baronscourt – the Abercorns’ Georgian estate, with formal gardens and Sperrin parkland, open by appointment.
- Clogher – the neighbouring valley town, with its cathedral and a long history as a church seat.
- Ballygawley – a Tyrone village to the east with a heritage trail.
Time a visit around a Blessingbourne ride or a session at the Forest Stables rather than the creamery, and you’ll get the best of the place; the main street takes ten minutes to walk, and the countryside is where the day is.