Thursday Doors – Sion Mills

If you like history, especially social history, then you would love a visit to the County Tyrone village of Sion Mills and if you can’t travel there yourself, I’ll be doing a Thursday Doors post about it at a later date. For now, let me show you just a few of the lovely old buildings that grace the roadside as it cuts through the village. They were all taken from the car as we didn’t have time to stop on this trip, so please excuse the quality.

Sion Mills was founded in 1835, as a linen village community, when a flax-spinning mill was built on the banks of the River Mourne. It employed up to 1,200 people at one point and was renowned as the ‘Rolls Royce’ of the linen industry worldwide.

This Church of Ireland, Church of the Good Shepherd, was built in the style of Italian renaissance in 1909 and based on the design of a church at Pistoia, near Florence, Italy.

The sign on this well preserved building says ‘Public Elementary School 1879’

There are over forty listed buildings in Sion Mills, so I am itching to check out as many as I can.

As we continued to drive towards our destination, I tried to capture some interesting images along the way but it was difficult to get a clear shot in a moving vehicle.

‘Let The Dance Begin’ Sculpture by  Maurice Harron

These statues of dancers and musicians are 18 feet high and can be found just off the roundabout on the Lifford Road, Strabane, County Tyrone.

My last photograph is of a nice old cottage standing in a field. I had to enlarge this image as it was quite a distance away from the road and I only had my phone camera to work with, so it’s a bit blurred.

Thanks for your visit this week. My next post will feature some night images of Derry city. In the meantime, if you would like to see a selection of Thursday Doors from around the globe, have a look at Norm’s blog and follow the links in the comments.