About » Lurgan Town Centre

Lurgan (from the Irish: an Lorgain meaning "the long ridge"), is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland.

Lurgan is situated in the Craigavon Borough Council area, to the south of Lough Neagh. The town is approximately 19 miles (30 km) southwest of Belfast and is linked to the city by both the M1 motorway and the Belfast-Dublin railway line.

Lurgan is characteristic of many Plantation of Ulster settlements, with its straight, wide planned streets and rows of cottages. Lurgan Park, located a few hundred yards from the main street is the largest urban park in Northern Ireland and the second largest in Ireland after Phoenix Park, Dublin. It includes a sizable lake and an original Coalbrookdale fountain. The park is overlooked by Brownlow House, a 19th century Elizabethan-style manor house . Lurgan Park is home to annual summer events such as the Lurgan Agricultural Show, the Lurgan Park Rally, noted as the largest annual motor sport event in Northern Ireland and a stage in the Circuit of Ireland Rally.

There is a figure of speech used in Northern Ireland - to have a face as long as a Lurgan spade. meaning to look miserable. The origins of this expression are disputed. One origin is that a "Lurgan spade" was an under-paid workman digging what is now the Lurgan Park lake. Alternatively it could be from the Irish language lorga spád meaning the shaft (literally "shin") of a spade.