You're most likely to find yourself in Monaghan Town while on your way to somewhere else, but the actual fabric of the place is quite interesting as you pass through. Monaghan town epitomizes what makes this county very definitely Ulster and yet quite distinct from Cavan. The planning of seventeenth-century settlers, the prosperity of the eighteenth-century linen industry (largely the achievement of Scots Presbyterians) and the subsequent wealth and status of the town in the following century are all very much in evidence.

The Town
Three central squares are linked by a chain of lanes, a layout not, in fact, altogether typical of plantation towns. Three central squares are linked by a chain of lanes, a layout not, in fact, altogether typical of plantation towns. At the centre is the Diamond - the name given to all these Ulster "squares" - in the middle of which stands a grandiose Victorian drinking fountain, the kind of memorial strongly reminiscent of any nineteenth-century industrial British city, yet strangely out of place in rural Ireland. When it was placed here, the earlier seventeenth-century Scottish settlers' cross, with its multifaceted sundial, was shifted a short distance along Dublin Street to Old Cross Square, where it still stands.

Alongside the Diamond is Church Square. Here a classical courthouse, a solid Victorian bank and hotel and a very pretty Regency Gothic church, large and spacious, stand together, conferring a strong sense of civic dignity. The town's former importance as a British garrison town is quite clear, and a large obelisk commemorates a colonel killed in the Crimean War. Everything about the place suggests a conscious attempt at permanency, buildings placed with a view to posterity; even the rounded corners of the most mundane buildings and their boldly arched entries - both features unique to Monaghan - suggest strength and pride.

Beyond Church Square, at the top of Market Street, is a pretty, arched Market House built in 1792, a solid, graceful building of well-cut limestone, with finely detailed decoration of carved oak leaves and oak apples. In the opposite direction, Dublin Street leads down to Old Cross Square. At number ten stands the birthplace of Monaghan's most famous son, Charles Gavan Duffy - a Nationalist who was instrumental in the founding of the Irish Tenant League. He was also the co-founder, along with Thomas Davis, of The Nation, a paper which was to disseminate politically sensitive ideas. Beyond, high on a hill out of town, St Macartan's Catholic Cathedral commands views over the whole town and surrounding countryside. Completed in 1892, it's a Gothic Revival building of hard grey sandstone, with a tall spire and a spacious interior, complete with an impressive hammer-beam roof. As you stand on the steps looking out over the surrounding land you get a real feeling of its era - it's a most successful nineteenth-century statement of religious liberation and pride.

As well as being a busy commercial and administrative centre, Monaghan looks after the county's vigorous and sometimes violent history at the Monaghan County Museum on Hill Street (Tues-Sat 10am-1pm & 2-5pm; free). This fine building houses a permanent collection of archeological material, prehistoric antiquities, examples of traditional local crafts, domestic utensils and paintings, prints and watercolors from the late eighteenth century to the present day. The museum's most prized artifact is the Cross of Clogher, a processional cross dating from around 1400. Contemporary art exhibitions are also held here. The heritage centre , Broad Rd (Mon, Tues, Thurs & Fri 10am-noon & 2-4pm, Sat & Sun 2.30-4.30pm; £1/?1.27), tells the story of the religious order of St Louis, with an intelligent display meticulously put together by one of the sisters; you're guided through it with a cassette recording.

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