Ulster American Folk Park Traditional Cache

****WINNER OF THE NORTHERN IRELAND TOURISM AWARDS 2008 FOR VISITOR ATTRACTION****

This outdoor museum tells the story of emigration during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Old and New World layout of the Park illustrates the various aspects of emigrant life on both sides of the Atlantic.



Traditional thatched buildings, American log houses and a full-scale replica emigrant ship and the dockside gallery help to bring a bygone era back to life.

Costumed demonstrators go about their everyday tasks in a traditional manner in authentically furnished buildings. Visitors are able to taste traditional fayre and see demonstrations on traditional Irish and American crafts and agriculture including spinning, printing, blacksmithing and textiles. The museum also includes an indoor ‘Emigrants’ Exhibition and includes a Centre for Migration Studies/library which is accessible to all visitors.



A full programme of special events is organised throughout the year including the award winning annual Appalachian & Bluegrass Music Festival (first weekend in September) and the ever popular Hallowe’en Festival.



Now in its 17th year the Annual Appalachian and Bluegrass Festival has become one of the largest bluegrass events outside of North America.



The Annual Appalachian & Bluegrass Music Festival runs over three days and features a range of attractions including the ‘Bluegrass in The Park’ outdoor musical performances and three major evening concerts in the festival marquee.

Samuel Fulton Stone House



The Fulton Stone House is an original building brought to The Ulster American Folk Park from the township of Donegal Springs in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and was the home of Samuel Fulton who emigrated from Co. Donegal in Ireland in the early 18th century. At that time the township of Donegal Springs was a remote frontier outpost inhabited mainly by Scotch-Irish settlers from West Ulster.

Between 1725 and 1750 Samuel Fulton built this one and half storey stone house, using the fieldstones he found on his land, a method of building with which he had been familiar in Ireland. The Fulton family, like many others, owned livestock, grew a variety of crops such as wheat, flax and rye and their diet would also have included wild game and native fruits and vegetables, which were plentiful in the area. Samuel Fulton's holding of 309 acres, known as Fulton's Pleasure, passed to his son James after his death in 1760. The Fulton family continued to occupy the land at East Donegal until 1778 when it was sold to David Cooke.

The Folk Park acquired the Fulton Stone House in 1997 and dismantled it stone by stone before shipping it to the museum where it has now been re-erected and furnished with artefacts appropriate to the period.

The cache is a small tablock box containing a logbook and swappable items.