County Tyrone
Northern Ireland's two main motorways strike out west from Belfast, skirting Lough Neagh 'that noble sheet of water' to the north and the south. To the north the M2 heads towards the Sperrins, while the M1 will bring you to the windswept moors of county Tyrone.
Apart from the main towns the landscape is almost empty of men but rich in prehistoric and Celtic remains
About one thousand standing stones are a testament to the Stone Age people who passed this way.
Well known neolithic sites here include the Beaghmore stone circles near Cookstown which were uncovered only 40 years ago, and the chambered cairn of Knockmany at the top of a steep wooded hill north of Clogher.
From the seventh to the 12th century, crosses and High Crosses became a prominent feature of early Christian Ireland and there is a superb example of this peculiarly Irish art, 18-l/2 feet high, at Ardboe.
County Tyrone is the second largest of the nine counties of Ulster and the largest of the six counties of Northern Ireland. Area: 3,155 kmē (1,218 square miles).
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 stretched as far north as Lough Foyle, and comprised part of modern day County Londonderry east of the River Foyle. The majority of County Londonderry was carved out of Tyrone between 1610-1620 when that land went to the Guilds of London to set up profit making schemes based on natural resources located there. Tyrone was the traditional stronghold of the various O'Neill clans and families, the strongest of the Gaelic Irish families.
