Step into the powerful storey of emigration at the Ulster American Folk Park, an immersive open-air, living history museum just outside Omagh. Set in scenic Irish countryside, the park brings to life the journey of millions who left Ulster for North America in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Explore three distinctive sections as you walk in the footsteps of the bold migrants who set sail for America.
Begin in Rural Ulster, where the sights and sounds of everyday Irish life surround you. Explore authentic thatched cottages, welcoming farmsteads and a bustling street, where costumed guides demonstrate traditional crafts such as blacksmithing and open hearth cooking. Here you can explore the Mellon Homestead, the birthplace of Thomas Mellon, the founding father of the Mellon banking dynasty. The Ulster American Folk Park was developed around this cottage and the house you see is the one that Thomas Mellon was born in. The Mellon Homestead is a living building, with ducks and hens in the yard and soft drink bread on the griddle, just as it was in the 19th century.
Next, step into the Journey, the emotional heart of the Folk Park. Board the replica Brig Union emigrant sailing ship and experience the cramped quarters where hundreds of people lived during their twelve-week journey. This section vividly recreates the perilous Atlantic crossing and the resilience required to leave everything behind.
Finally, arrive in the vibrant streets of America and learn how resourceful ancestors created new lives in a new land. Here, log cabins and frontier homes reveal how emigrants built new lives and shaped modern America. Their stories are here for you to discover, along with the Ulster traditions they carried with them and made a part of their life in America.
Visit the Maker Café in the Visitor Centre which offers a wide selection of hot and cold food and refreshments including sandwiches, soup, paninis, and wraps. Enjoy some fantastic shopping opportunities at the museum, including the museum gift shop which has a wide variety of gifts, souvenirs, books, and local crafts. Some of the exhibit shop buildings also trade like they used to back in the day, like O’Doherty’s Shop, which serves sweets the traditional way. Every bag is weighed out in ounces and quarters with vintage ounce weights and is a firm visitor favourite!
