Ulster American Folk Park

The park developed from the restoration of the Mellon family homestead at Camp Hill Cottage in Castletown, the birthplace of the banker and judge Thomas Mellon, who had emigrated to Pennsylvania as a child in 1818. The restoration followed an approach from Matthew Mellon, a grandson of Thomas Mellon, and the ancestral home was opened to the public in 1968. The site was developed into an open-air museum by Eric Montgomery, a Northern Ireland civil servant who became the folk park's first director, and the park opened in 1976. Buildings of typical or particular significance from both Ulster and North America were dismantled at their original locations and rebuilt on the site.

The demonstrations that take place showcase the day-to-day tasks and skills of those who lived in the era such as blacksmithing, candle-dipping, embroidery, spinning, printing, and open hearth cooking. The museum runs a lively programme of events and exhibitions that connect to their collections. The museum has also hosted many international exhibitions in recent years including Fighting Irishmen from the Irish Arts Center in New York which showcased the influence of Irish emigrants in the sport of boxing, and Warriors of the Plains from the British Museum, which explored the Indigenous peoples of North America. Special events mark the culture of both the New World and the Old World, such…