The best cycling routes around Cranny

As you cycle through the rolling landscape of County Tyrone, the Wellbrook Beetling Mill is an absolute must for a stopover. Situated in an idyllic, wooded stream valley along the Ballinderry River, this 19th-century water mill provides a stark contrast to the tranquility of its surroundings. This is the last working 'beetling mill' in the United Kingdom. "Beetling" was the final step in traditional Irish linen production: using enormous wooden hammers (beetles), powered by a water wheel nearly five metres high, the linen was processed for hours until it acquired its characteristic sheen. When the mill is running, you can hear the rhythmic thudding from afar – an impressive sound that takes you straight back to the industrial heyday of Northern Ireland.

High above Cookstown, at the foot of the impressive Sperrin Mountains, you will find the Beaghmore Stone Circles. This is one of Ireland's most fascinating archaeological sites. Only rediscovered in the 1940s during peat cutting, the bog revealed a complex of seven stone circles, ten stone rows, and numerous Bronze Age burial mounds. For a cyclist, the road to Beaghmore is an experience in itself. The route takes you away from the inhabited world into a vast, quiet landscape where the wind has free rein. The complex itself exudes an enormous sense of peace and is the perfect place to get off your bike and soak up the prehistoric atmosphere.

Beaghmore (Bheitheach Mhór), meaning ‘big place of birch trees’. The stones speak of ancient rituals and to a people who understood astronomy. When you visit this ancient site look up in wonder at the sky and reflect, that the people that built these monuments observed the same sky, sun, moon and stars.

Contained within the ruins is a sculpture of the crucifixion, which is thought to date from the 10th Century, making it one of the oldest in Ireland. St Lurach founded an important church here in the 6th century. It was plundered by Vikings in 832 and burned in 1135. Following the 12th-century ecclesiastical reforms this was the seat of a bishop from the mid 12th to the mid 13th century, then served as parish church until the new church across the road was built in the early 19th century. This long history is reflected in the much patched and altered fabric, and the big uneven graveyard.

There are 7 stone circles, 12 cairns and 10 rows of stones here at Beaghamore. In total 1269 stones were discovered under the peat during the 1930s. The site dates back to 2900 - 2600 BC.

National Trust owned water powered mill, originally used in the manufacture of Linen. Well worth stopping off for a look around.

Beaghmore is a complex of early Bronze Age megalithic features, stone circles and cairns, 8.5 miles north west of Cookstown, on the south-east edge of the Sperrin Mountains. There are seven low stone circles of different sizes, six of which are paired, twelve cairns and ten stone rows. The circles are between 10 and 20m in diameter, and are associated with earlier burial cairns and alignments of stone rows lead towards them. The stones are small with few more than 0.5m in height and the circles are distorted, suggesting they are related to kerbs surrounding some megalithic tombs.

This a National Trust property that I believe has limited opening hours. It is well worth a visit and taking the free guided tour which gives lots of info about the place the mill had in the linen manufacturing industry (beetling being part of the finishing of the linen cloth). As part of the tour the water powered mill machinery will be stated up and you see the linen cloth being processed as it would when the mill was open.