Overview
Two rivers meet in the middle of Omagh: the Drumragh and the Camowen join here to form a third, the Strule, and the town grew up around that junction as the market and county centre of County Tyrone. It’s a working town rather than a pretty one, and the draw isn’t really the streets but what sits just beyond them – the Ulster American Folk Park a few miles north, and the Sperrin Mountains rising to the east. If you only have an afternoon, give it to the Folk Park.
History and regeneration
The name comes from the Irish An Ómaigh, ‘the virgin plain’. There was a monastery on the site by around 792, and a Franciscan friary by 1464; the modern street grid dates to the plantation town laid out in 1610, and Omagh took over from Dungannon as county town in 1768. The railway once linked it to Belfast, Derry and Enniskillen, but the passenger line closed in 1965 and never came back.
The town’s recent shape owes most to a single day. The 1998 Real IRA car bomb killed 29 people – among them a woman pregnant with twins – in the worst single atrocity of the Troubles. The regeneration that followed reworked the centre around the river: the OASIS plaza on the Strule bank and the conversion of the old town hall into the Strule Arts Centre turned civic and industrial ground into public space.
What to see and do
Ulster American Folk Park – The one unmissable thing, a few miles north of the town. This open-air museum follows Ulster emigrants across the Atlantic, with reconstructed 19th-century buildings on both the Irish and American sides, a full-scale emigrant ship you walk through, the Thomas Mellon cottage, and the Mellon Centre for Migration Studies with its large diaspora archive. Guided visits to the nearby U.S. Grant Ancestral Homestead tie local genealogy to American presidential history.
OASIS plaza – Along the Strule bank, this open public space has water-play areas, seating and sculpture, and fills up during summer festivals and weekend markets. It’s the town’s main gathering point.
Strule Arts Centre – In the former town hall, with a theatre, gallery space and workshops. The footbridge beside it gives a clear view up and down the river and links the arts quarter to the pedestrianised shopping streets.
Sacred Heart Church – The twin spires above the town belong to Sacred Heart Church, the most prominent thing on the Omagh skyline and worth the short climb for the stonework.
Healy Park – Home of Tyrone GAA, with a ticketed capacity of around 18,000. Worth timing a visit around a Championship match, when the whole town fills; on any other day it’s a stadium behind a fence.
Outdoor adventures and nature
The town’s real advantage is how quickly you’re out of it and into forest and hill.
- Gortin Glen Forest Park – A short drive north, with five colour-coded trails from a gentle 30-minute loop to a two-hour hike, plus a large adventure playground, a deer enclosure, waterfalls and accessible paths with tactile paving. It forms part of the longer Sperrin Way.
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Cycling and mountain biking – For proper trails, Davagh Forest has waymarked green and red loops, and the Blessingbourne Estate offers a 550-acre network graded from beginner to expert. Guided Cycle Sperrins outings trace old settler routes across the foothills.
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Fishing and water – The Drumragh and Camowen hold brown trout and are fished catch-and-release. The Omagh Leisure Complex has a boating pond with paddle-boarding, while the OASIS water features are built for supervised children’s play.
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Ancient monuments – The Beaghmore Stone Circles sit on the Sperrin fringe west of town: Bronze Age circles, cairns and stone rows, open year-round and free, with archaeological talks laid on during the European Heritage Open Days in September.
Events and local culture
The calendar leans on food, music and heritage. The Omagh Eats Food and Drink Festival (May–June) fills the centre with street-food stalls and local producers; summer brings a bluegrass festival at the Folk Park, and autumn is the season for the Sperrins Scenic Driving Route as the woodland colours turn.
For traditional music, Dún Uladh Cultural Heritage Centre runs regular sessions, dancing and storytelling. If you’d rather learn the streets, Vincent’s Tyrone Roots runs historical walking and genealogy tours of the town, and the self-guided Omagh Historical Trail covers the same ground for free. For a pint afterwards, Seán Óg’s and Bogan’s Bar are the town-centre standbys, with Number 19 and The Kitchen among the better daytime cafés.
Practical information
Getting there
- By road: Omagh sits on the A5 (Belfast–Derry) and A32 (Enniskillen–Ballinamore); the Throughpass bypass keeps through-traffic off the town centre.
- By bus: Ulsterbus runs the 273 from Belfast (about 1h 40m) plus local routes to Strabane, Enniskillen and Castlederg, while Goldliner and Expressway services reach Dublin in roughly three hours.
- By air: Belfast International and Belfast City are both reachable on the A5/A4 corridor. No passenger trains have run since 1965.
Visitor essentials
- Visitor Information Centre: Open Monday to Saturday, 10am–5.30pm, with a box office for the Strule Arts Centre and free information on walking the Sperrins. Blue Badge parking is available outside.
- Parking: One thing to know before you arrive – the town-centre Pay & Display car parks (Market Street, Market Place and the Crevenagh park-and-ride among them) went cashless in April 2024 and now take payment only through the RingGo app, so have a phone and card ready. Parking is free at the forest parks and the Leisure Complex; Healy Park parking is match-day only.
- Accessibility: OASIS, Gortin Glen and Davagh Forest have step-free access, disabled toilets and guide-dog facilities; the Strule Arts Centre and Folk Park both have step-free entrances and accessible seating.
- Admission: Gortin Glen, Davagh Forest and Beaghmore are free; the Ulster American Folk Park charges standard adult, child and family rates, with seasonal discounts on-site.
For a full day, do the Folk Park in the morning and drive up into Gortin Glen after lunch; Beaghmore is a half-hour further west if the weather holds, though check the forecast first, as conditions turn quickly on the higher ground.