Mullan Village
Picturesque 19th Century Village
Mullan is a picturesque 19th century mill village, located 8 miles north of Monaghan town, a few miles to the west of Emyvale, and close to the Armagh border. It is built in the tradition of other Ulster Mill Villages similar to but smaller than, Sion Mills, Bessbrook Co. Armagh, and Drumaness, Co. Down. Although small, the unique aspect of Mullan is that it remains practically unchanged today.
Architecturally, much of the village is early Victorian in character. Very few similarly well-defined and preserved examples of early rural industrial development exist in this country.
There are also a number of very attractive small cultural and heritage features within the village which make it attractive to visitors. These include a curved stone bench, a working water pump, and a mill-race which is over 1km long and reputed to be the longest mill-race in this country. The village still has a functioning post office.
A Mill Settlement
Mullan (Muileann) means "the mill”. Mc Cutheon in “The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland” (1984) describes these Ulster mill settlements: 'In country areas the mill village was a compact cluster of regular terraced housing. The character of these industrial settlements reflected the nature and outlook of the proprietors, who had usually built or financed both the houses themselves and an associated range of public buildings- school, church, recreation hall, welfare and community centre, library, shop - which together made up the physical fabric of the village'.
Favourable conditions such as the construction of roads and canals enabled goods to be transported from remote locations such as Mullan. The Great Northern Railway, Ulster Canal and the main Enniskillen to Belfast road passed very close to Mullan.
