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Welcome to Upperlands, the oldest linen village in Ireland. Located in County Derry, between the heather-clad Sperrin mountains and the salmon-rich waters of the river Bann, this hauntingly beautiful country has been associated since time immemorial with the blue-blossomed flax plant and the noble fabric it produces. And to this day, Upperlands is home to a linen business that was founded by Jackson Clark in 1736 and has flourished under eight generations of his descendants.

Another Upperlands linen-making family produced one of America's Founding Fathers - Charles Thomson, the Philadelphia revolutionary. Other local success stories include a pioneer of the Canadian Pacific railway and a surgeon who tended to Napoleon on his death-bed. The village looms in the imagination of Seamus Heaney, the Nobel Prize-winning poet who grew up nearby.

Yet however far they go, people from Upperlands feel drawn back to the low green hills and glistening dams, built to feed the mill and now a joy for bird-watchers, hikers and fishermen. And the conversion of Ardtara, one of the Clark family residences, into a luxurious hotel means that visitors from all over the world can make their journey in old-fashioned comfort and style.

The Upperlands Community Development Group is working to create employment, enhance the village and promote good relations among all sections of the poplulation.

The Story of Upperlands

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