Ranfurly House

This fine, listed Victorian building, a former bank, stands in the heart of Dungannon. But it is also the gateway to one of the most ancient sites in Ulster – Hill of The O’Neill.

Today Ranfurly House is the location of our multimedia exhibition as well as our reception, visitor information centre, gift shop, auditorium, and meeting rooms. Visitors can see where the original banking hall would have been. So the next time you visit, turn your gaze to the original Victorian architectural features.

So where does the Ranfurly name come from?

In 1692 Dungannon and its neighbouring town lands were sold to a Scottish landowner, Thomas Knox. One of his descendants, also Thomas, was given a peerage, for which he took the title Baron Ranfurly – a reference to the village in Renfrewshire where the family had originated.

The Ranfurly and Knox names remain in evidence around the town and surrounding area to this day. When the time came to choose a name for this building in the 1990s, the town council decided to acknowledge the family who had contributed so much to creating Dungannon as we know it.