Lisburn

Lisburn: Irish Linen Centre and Lisburn Museum

Lisburn, Irish Lios na gCearrbhach, town, Lisburn and Castlereagh City district, eastern Northern Ireland. The town, on the River Lagan 8 miles (13 km) southwest of Belfast, was a small village known as Lisnagarvey before the English, Scots, and Welsh settled the site in the 1620s as part of the Plantation of Ulster scheme. The castle built there was besieged by native Irish in 1641 and was destroyed by fire (together with most of the town) in 1707. French Huguenot refugees and linen workers were invited by the English government to settle in Lisburn in 1698. They quickly introduced Dutch looms and reorganized the fledgling Ulster linen industry. The town became one of the United Kingdom’s most important linen manufacturing centres and is the home of the Irish Linen Centre & Lisburn Museum. Christ Church (Anglican) Cathedral (originally built in 1623) is a fine example of church architecture of the Plantation of Ulster period. Pop. (2001) 43,755; (2011) 45,410.