East end: Portadown | Province Ulster | |
 | ||
West end: Outside Belcoo at border with the Republic. Becomes N16. Primary
destinations: Portadown
Dungannon
Enniskillen
Sligo | ||
The A4 is a major road in Northern Ireland. It travels through County Armagh, County Tyrone and County Fermanagh and continues to Sligo in the Republic of Ireland as the N16.
Contents
Map of A4, United Kingdom
The route branches off from the A3 in Portadown, and from the start of the route to its junction with the M1, and from its point of resumption to the border with the Republic of Ireland near Belcoo, it is a primary route. At present, it is mainly single carriageway, apart from a short section around Dungannon, which is dual carriageway.
Route
The A4 begins near Portadown town centre at a junction with the A3 Northway and the B77 towards Loughgall. Continuing along Corcrain Road and Charles Street in the Portadown suburbs, it meets a roundabout with the B28 road to Moy (taking the turn-off to your right at this roundabout will bring you down the Garvaghy Road). The A4 continues as a short stretch, called the Dungannon Road, to Junction 12 of the M1.
The A4 resumes at the end of the M1. Until 1980, all traffic following the A4 had to leave the M1 at its final junction and travel through Dungannon town centre to rejoin the A4, but a by-pass opened that year continued the A4 route ahead past the final junction of the M1, including a short section of dual-carriageway which had been built at the same time as the M1. The A4 then continues, passing through the townlands of Granville, Cabragh and Ballyreaghthe villages of Augher. The road crosses the county border into County Fermanagh, and skirts past the villages of Brookeborough, Maguiresbridge, Lisbellaw and Tamlaght on its approach to Enniskillen. It is believed that these villages were by-passed in the 1960s.
In and around Enniskillen, A4 traffic multiplexes with traffic coming from the A32 route from Omagh, as well as traffic using the A46/A509/N3 corridor, as it traverses through the town and its suburbs. Past Enniskillen, the A4 passes through the villages of Letterbreen and Belcoo, where it then reaches the border with the Republic of Ireland (at a bridge over Lough MacNean into Blacklion) and continues westward toward Sligo as the N16.
In wider sections of the road, the hard shoulder has been converted for use as a "slow lane" for a short distance for westbound traffic in two places; between Dungannon and Ballygawley at the Cappagh crossroads, and between Fivemiletown and Brookeborough.
Road quality
The road is generally of good quality, with a number of planned improvements including dualling of the Dungannon to Ballygawley section and a bypass of the Clogher Valley. The construction of climber lanes on the Dungannon to Ballygawley in the late 1990s reduced the number of accidents on what had been a very dangerous stretch of road.
Planned developments
The Department for Regional Development plans a series of future road schemes for the A4:
Tourist attractions
There are a number of tourist attractions on or close to the A4. These include: