INTRODUCTION

The map of the area around Markethill shows the following settlements: Acton Village, Aghory, Aghory Milltown, Armagh City, Aughlish, Ballymacnab, Clare, Clady (or Cladymore), Cranemore, Edenaveys, Eleven Lane Ends, Glenanne, Hamiltonsbawn Village, Lisnadill, Loughgilly, Markethill Town, Mountnorris, Mossfield, Mullaghbrack, Poyntzpass Town, Tanderagee Town, and Tassagh. Choose a settlement from the list to find out more about it.

A settlement is an area within which a group of people choose to live. Over time, as populations change, hamlets can become villages, villages become towns, towns become cities and vice versa.

Some definitions:

TOWNS. For census purposes, towns are settlements of 50 or more houses. They "function as important local service centres" (Armagh Area Plan 2004).

VILLAGES. They provide certain local services and have the capacity to accomodate both public and private housing of an appropriate scale, some small scale industry and local community and service facilities (Armagh Area Plan 2004).

HAMLETS. "Hamlets [are] essentially rural in character [and] accomodate small groups of houses of appropriate scale as well as one-off houses through infilling and rounding-off...
The criteria used to identify and designate hamlets are:
--it should contain a significant number of occupied dwellings;
--it should contain social facilities and services;
--it should contain commercial facilities;
--it should be the focus of an active community, either nucleated or, in some cases, dispersed.
The hamlets designated contain at least three of the above criteria, a strong sense of local community being particularly important." (Armagh Area Plan 2004: Armagh District Council Area,pp.11,73)

Settlement map