Tullaghogue Fort takes top tourism spot in Mid Ulster

The Bog Museum at Island Turf Crafts and Visitor Centre in Coalisland.

The facility, which allows visitors to “observe craftsmen at work while exploring reconstructed lifestyles and habits of pre-historic Ireland with artefacts excavated from Irish bog lands”, is based at Island Turf Crafts in the town’s Enterprise Centre.

The Coalisland attraction was beaten to first place in the poll by Tullaghoge Fort, which has just undergone a recent major revamp.

The third most popular visitor attraction in Mid Ulster District Council area last year was, according to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA), the Grants Ancestral Home near Ballygawley.

A total of £22 million was spent by tourists in the Mid Ulster area during 2015, with the highest percentage of visitors (51%) hailing from within Northern Ireland.

Twenty-eight per cent of those visiting Mid Ulster came from Great Britain, 11% from the Republic and other, 6% from Mainland Europe, and 4% from North America.

Among those who visited, the main reason for doing so was to visit friends and relatives, with holiday/pleasure/leisure next highest on the list.

Business only accounted for a small percentage of those travelling to Mid Ulster.

Three out of ten overnight stays in Northern Ireland last year, were made to Belfast, although the Giants Causeway out-performed Titanic Belfast as the most popular place to go.