Ulster American Folk Park

The Ulster American Folk Park brings you on a journey back in time. The Ulster American Folk Park tells the story of Ulster people’s emigration to North America in the 18th and 19th centuries. Learn more about lives left behind, the hardships endured on the journey and the pioneering spirit of building new lives in a new land.

Visitor Centre

Upon arrival, Check in with the team at the Visitor Centre and find out what’s happening around the Park. Start your adventure and discover the stories of the families and individuals who left Ulster in hopes of a better life. Explore the emigration timeline then head outside. In the visitor centre, you also find a shop and restaurant. 

At the Ulster American Folk Park, they organize plenty of special weekends. Celebrate St Patrick's Day, visit during Halloween, ..... these special weekends add another dimension to this very interesting park.

Ulster:

Walk in the footsteps of bold migrants who set sail for America in the 18th and 19th centuries. Learn more about the life they left behind and the hardships they endured on the journey. Wander the well-trodden pathways of rural Ulster, complete with a bustling street and welcoming farmhouses. 

From the simple single room cabin to the weaver's cottage to the large Campbell's house, discover life as it was in Ulster. Talk to the people dressed in 18th and 19th century attire, taste some of the soda bread baked above one of the open fires or learn more about life in these cottages.

A visit to the Mellon homestead is a walk back in time. Thomas Mellon was born in this small farmhouse in 1813, and it still stands on its original site. In 1818, at the age of five, he emigrated with his parents to Pennsylvania. He would grow up to become a lawyer, a judge, and the founder of the Mellon Bank, which remains one of America’s largest. The Mellon Homestead is a living building – there are ducks and hens in the yard and soda bread on the griddle – just as it was in the 19th century
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The Journey:

Say goodbye to the familiar sights and sounds of Ulster as you walk along the cobble-stoned streets lined with original 19th-Century shopfronts. Step into the stores and admire the shelves at Hill's chemist or the extensive range in Blair's printers. Stock up on provisions from Reilley's pub grocers.

Enter the dockside and get your ticket for your voyage from the ticket office. Board the Brig Union, a replica of an emigrant sailing ship that carried many passengers to a different life in the USA. Experience the cramped quarters where hundreds of people lived during their twelve-week Atlantic crossing. Emerge from the crossing and learn how our resourceful ancestors created new lives in a new land.

The port of arrival gives you a taste what the first hours on the new continent were like. The street with its many American shopfronts was what greeted the emigrants on their arrival in cities such as Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York or Boston. Explore a general store with an original interior, a tinsmith’s exhibition, a wheelwright’s workshop and a replica of the first Mellon Bank.
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America:

Like all of the buildings you will see from this point, most of the houses were constructed on land taken at some point from Indigenous Peoples.

An example of this is the Samuel Fulton Stone house. When Samuel arrived in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania from Donegal in 1724, the Conestogas, a community of Native people, were still living and trading nearby. Their lands were whittled down by colonists and in 1763 they were massacred by the Paxton Boys, a gang with mostly Ulster emigrant backgrounds, in revenge for unrelated raids on the frontier.

Walking through the America's keep an eye on the details. For example, the fields contain plants that would have been grown in America, from corn to tabacco to the many medicinal herbs.

Another house you will see along your travels is the Tennessee Rogan Plantation House. Francis Rogan’s prosperity is reflected in this red brick home. However Rogan’s wealth owed to the work of enslaved people who worked his fields growing wheat, tobacco, sweet potatoes and corn,... Records show Rogan was exploiting at least 71 enslaved people in 1860, making him one of the most prolific enslavers in the state of Tennessee at the time

A visit to the Ulster American Folk park is a great day out for both old and young. By stepping back in time, learn about life in Ulster and in America.
With many picnic benches around the park, enjoy a picnic with the family. Make sure to wear suitable footwear, this as many of the paths are gravel ,....

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