CAMPAIGN FOR REAL ALE

COUNTY ARMAGH - Camlough, Carragher's

National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors Part One

12 Main Street, Camlough, BT35 7JG

Tel: 028 3083 0515

Opening Hours: Closed Mondays; Open 8pm to 11pm Mon to Sun - knock on the left hand side door to gain access!

Public Transport: (2 miles from Newry Railway Station)

Listed Status: Grade B1

View this pub on a local map

A plain red frontage conceals one of the most important and complete pub interiors anywhere in the British Isles and almost entirely unchanged since the late nineteenth century. Much of the main bar is taken up with three snugs of the type found at the Crown in Belfast and which are such a speciality of Northern Irish bars. Each has its own number (as at the Crown) and panels of stained glass in the doors. The bar-back is a seven-bay affair with mirrored strips dividing up the sections and four spirit casks (two for rum and two for whiskey). Original bar-counter with a row of coloured tiles set in near the top. Fine mirror advertising Kirker, Greer’s ‘Cream of Old Irish Whisky’.

The only real change in a century has been the laying of attractive new flooring, probably, in the 1920s. Note the spittoon trough in front of the counter now used for collecting cigarette ends and sundry detritus and the copper heater for making hot whisky which is still in use today. There is a full-sized snooker table in the rear room and which is available for customers' use.