Arthur Cottage and Interpretative Centre Cullybackey + Six Mile Water Camp Site, Antrim.

Saturday 15th June 2024.

This morning we awoke to another damp grey day we looked on the maps to find somewhere to go and be tourists for a while and the only place nearby was Arthur Cottage. We weren’t sure what to expect and didn’t arrive with any great enthusiasm however that was soon to change as we were taken in hand by the resident tour guide Mary. We ended up spending 75 minutes there discussing a wide range of things that weren’t all on the normal guide talk including the differences and some similarities that we had seen on our travels up the west coast, traditional skills, thatching etc.

Arthur cottage is near the village of Cullybackey in County Antrim, it is the ancestral home of Chester Alan Arthur the 21st President of the USA. The cottage and adjoining building are set up to show how the Arthur family lived in the late 18th century, the family weren’t poor and Arthur’s father didn’t emigrate because of the famine.

In 1815 Arthur’s father at the age of 19 sailed to America where eventually he met his future wife who came from Vermont and in 1829 Arthur was born. He grew up in upstate New York and as an adult practiced law, he became involved in politics and became a state senator. After the election of James Garfield to President, Arthur was Vice President but 4 months later President Garfield was shot by an assassins and died 11 weeks later, Arthur then found himself President. He didn’t run for a second term as he was ill and he died not long afterwards.

It was only a short drive to our stopover for this weekend as we have booked on site for two nights. The site is a municipal owned and run site, next to a pleasant park and small pleasure boat harbour on Lough Neagh and the Six Mile River ( wonder why it is called that.)