Belleeks

The area in which Belleeks is situated has been populated for thousands of years, but it contains less easily discernible prehistoric remains than are widely evident in other parts of South County Armagh. What was to become the village of Belleeks was once the site of a Tudor garrison, besieged and taken during the Great O'Neill's rebellion. The area to become the village was held in the estates of Hugh Boy O'Hanlon in 1641, one of the few Catholic gentry retaining substantial landholdings in County Armagh following the Plantation of Ulster, before the Rising of that year. Situated in the estates of the Earls of Gosford by the eighteenth century, the modern settlement largely owes its…

Saint Laurence O'Toole's Roman Catholic Church sits in a prominent location above the village, whilst a Church of Ireland church and Orange Hall lie between Belleeks and Whitecross. The village has two public houses, a small store, a part-time factory and a public common in the village centre. The village has developed from a linear settlement along the A25 as late as the 1960s, with the addition of five private and local authority housing developments since the 1970s. Most residents work away from the village. The largest local industry remaining is agriculture. Belleeks is served by the number 44 Ulsterbus service from Newry to Newtownhamilton several times daily and the number 40 service…