Make Friends in Lurgan, around Lurgan Park and Brownlow House

About 20% of Lurgan households rent privately, and its 250-acre park, with a lake and Brownlow House, now hosts a Saturday parkrun.
Lurgan friends pushing bicycles on a sunny stroll
38,100+
residents in the Lurgan District Electoral Area, NISRA Census 2021
20%
of Lurgan-area households are private renters; NI 17% (NISRA 2021)
12%
of homes around Lurgan are socially rented, under the 15% NI figure (NISRA Census 2021)

Lurgan knits on Wednesday afternoons

Knit and Natter on Wednesday afternoons at Lurgan Library on Carnegie Street, with knitting, crochet and cross stitch, is a calm way to make friends in Lurgan, and Saturdays bring Cryptic Corner and Tea and Newspapers side by side. Lurgan Park parkrun circles the 250-acre park weekly, and the Thursday market fills Town Plaza. With Gofrendly, Lurgan women can arrange to go together.

Lurgan questions, short answers

Lurgan woman grinning beside a wall of colour

What is in Lurgan Park?

Lurgan Park covers more than 250 acres, with a lake, landscaped walkways, a play park, the Coalbrookdale Fountain and a long main avenue. It opens from 7am every day, until 6pm in winter and 10pm in summer, with Brownlow House standing inside it in Lurgan.

Is Brownlow House in Lurgan worth a visit?

Brownlow House was built in 1833 for Charles Brownlow and designed by the Scottish architect William Playfair in the Elizabethan style. It has a tea room open Monday to Saturday from 10am to 3pm, a Second World War exhibition in the basement, and house tours by arrangement in Lurgan.

When is the Lurgan market?

Lurgan Market sets up on Town Plaza every Thursday from 9am to 3pm. The council’s artisan food and craft market also visits Lurgan town centre twice in 2026, starting on 4 April, which adds a Saturday browse to the calendar for anyone who likes local makers.

Where do Lurgan women meet new people?

Gofrendly, a women-only friendship app, matches Lurgan women with others close by, starting with messages. Saturday morning at the library, with Cryptic Corner and free tea and biscuits, suits a first meeting, and so does a stroll around the Lurgan Park lake.

Lurgan, a County Armagh town with a big park

Across the Lurgan District Electoral Area, around 20% of households rent privately and only about one in eight rents socially, so a good share of people here may have moved in recently or be between homes. That makes regular, low-key groups useful, the kind where you can sit down without an introduction and simply come back the next week.

A move, or a change in the household, can make anywhere feel lonely for a while. Lurgan Park has a lake, landscaped walks, a main avenue and the cast-iron Coalbrookdale Fountain, Brownlow House, built in 1833 to a design by William Playfair, has a tea room open Monday to Saturday, and the council plans £2.5m of community centre work in the town. The library also runs an adult reading group every four weeks on Tuesday evenings, and the Lurgan Linkages project is planning new public space at Blacks Court. Places to begin:

1
Lurgan Library on Carnegie Street.
2
Lurgan Park, its lake and main avenue.
3
Brownlow House Tea Room, Monday to Saturday.
4
Lurgan Market on Town Plaza, Thursdays.
5
The parkrun route round Lurgan Park.
LOCAL TIP
Pull up a chair at Cryptic Corner and you may soon find out who in the room is fastest at the crossword.
How to

Lurgan: four ways to make friends in town

1
Book a Wednesday Knit and Natter seat at the Carnegie Street library.
2
Join the Tuesday evening adult reading group, held once every four weeks.
3
Make the Thursday market on Town Plaza part of your week.
4
Share tea at Brownlow House with a Lurgan contact from Gofrendly.

Apps, numbers and making friends now

This Lurgan guide and its authors

Our founders Claudia Gård and Ulrika Lilja and the Gofrendly editors produced this Lurgan guide with recent arrivals in mind, and women whose old circle has scattered.

Friendship looks different at every stage

More guides for women in this area – each with its own local advice.

Friendship looks different at every stage

More guides for women in this area – each with its own local advice.

Find women near you

See who’s nearby and say hi — it’s free to start.

Make friends in areas across Lurgan