MARKETHILL

MARKETHILL, a market and post-town, partly in the parish of MULLAGHBRACK, and partly in the district of KILCLUNEY, barony of LOWER FEWS, county of ARMAGH, and province of ULSTER, 5 ½ miles (E.) from Armagh, on the mail coach road to Newry, and 60 miles (N. by W.) from Dublin; containing 1043 inhabitants, and comprising 195 houses. It consists of one principal street, from which two others diverge, and is situated in the midst of a fertile country, the extensive demesne and splendid castle of Gosford, the property of Viscount Gosford, adding greatly to its beauty. Two miles to the south-west is the Vicar's Cairn, or Carricktole, commanding a most extensive and beautiful view.

Dean Swift in his writings notices a favourite spot here, which he named Draper's Hill; it is now within Lord Gosford's demesne. This is a thriving town, having more than doubled its inhabitants and houses within the last ten years; it has an excellent market on Friday, and a fair on the third Friday in each month for cattle and pigs: petty sessions are held every Friday, and quarter sessions for the county, alternately with Ballybot, in a neat sessions-house. The staff of the Armagh militia is at this town; among their muniments is deposited the stand of colours taken by them from the French at Ballynamuck, in 1798. It is a constabulary police station; and here is a small prison, with separate cells for males and females. There are large meeting-houses for Presbyterians of the Synod of Ulster and the Associate Synod, and one for Wesleyan Methodists, also a national school and a dispensary.—See MULLAGHBRACK.