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Hillbank Fold, James Street, OMAGH, BT78 1AP

Looking north-east

It is located off the Dromore Road

This interior design shop is off James Street - this used to be the manual telephone exchange building I noticed a new colour scheme in September 2016 Image]

It is located at James Street

This is the entrance to the Fold Housing area

Accessed from James Street, the first thing you see are the temporary buildings

It runs through John Street, two of the main churches are seen on either side.

It was located along John Street at the boundary wall of Trinity Presbyterian church, but has long since been removed. There is a picture of it in Dr Haldene Mitchell's "Images of Omagh" book series and also "People of Trinity" book. In the latter it is described as being located at the Bottom of Fairmount Road. This was for the benefit of working horses that had just negotiated the steep hill from the station. The trough had replaced a well that was previously located in the grass bank before the O'Connor Terrace row of houses were built.

Although built as a hotel, there is some doubt that it ever traded as such. The reason for this is not known. Quoting from The people of Trinity Book by John McCandless and Claire McElhinney "Importantly for this area, the railway from Londonderry, Enniskillen and Dundalk, arrived in Omagh in 1852, 1854 and 1859 respectively followed in 1861 by the Dungannon/Portadown line. This effectively ended the mail coaches to Dublin and elsewhere in Ireland and led to the development or at least redevelopment of John Street and James Street which were named after James and John Galbraith. The Station Hotel (now the Blind Centre and formerly home of the Lagan family) was the first property in James Street which was named Galbraith Terrace for a while after the Galbraith family which came to the district from Scotland during the Plantation in the early 1600s and acquired land at Clanabogan." Image]

As far as I can recollect there was a set of stone pillars and wrought iron gates here with Omagh Convent School written on a metal archway. This pillar is all that remains on the right hand side as you approach the school.