Carrickmacross, ten miles south of Castleblaney, is the county's second most important town, boosted in the nineteenth century by a prosperous lace-making industry.

Still, it's a rather modest place with just one broad main street: a planter's Gothic church stands at one end, and a fine mid-nineteenth century courthouse at the other.

In between, lies a bustling array of pubs, shops and Georgian houses, and today's lacemakers have their tiny showcase in the nineteenth-century market buildings at the lower end of the main street.

Just outside town, landscaped parkland of sumptuous oaks and beeches surrounds Lough Fea. Further out, some three miles down the Kingscourt Road, is the Dún a Rí Forest Park with more good wooded walks. The massive Nuremore Hotel is very expensive; (over £130/165.07), but there are plenty of B&Bs near the centre of Carrickmacross, up the Derry Road past the Texaco petrol station: try Cloughvalley House, or head for Eureka at 27 Ard Rois Ave, a friendly, low-key B&B.

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