Running past Barracktown House the main road was once called Slige Midluachra [meelooghra].It was one of the five Ancient roads of Ireland. This one extended northwards from Tara towards Slane on the Boyne, through the Moyry Pass north of Dundalk, and round the base of Slieve Fuaid, near the present Newtown-Hamilton in Armagh, on to the palace of Emain and Navan Fort and on to Dunseverick on the north coast of Antrim. One of its branches runs to Grianan of Aileach in Donegal. At the time of the Plantation of Ulster this was the road between Armagh and Derry followed by King James II, and D’Avaux, and still known to local residents as the Frenchman’s Lane, Castlecaulfeild. No road in the modern meaning of the word ran between the village of Donaghmore and Pomeroy or between Donaghmore and Galbally till a comparatively late date. On 8th June, 1747, the Church of Ireland Vestry at Castlecaulfeild, responsible at the time for many local public services, voted 20/- for the provision of a bridge ” with three peers and two planks ” over the Backford.

Slige Midluachra, one of the ancient Irish Roads from Tara