Around 590 AD, St Colman founded an abbey or monastery at Ardboe, on an elevated site overlooking Lough Neagh. It was burned 1166 and destroyed by John de Courcey in 1198, today ruins, cemetery and high cross remain.
The Château du Lude is one of the many great châteaux of the Loire Valley in France. Le Lude is the most northerly château of the Loire Valley and one of the last important historic castles in France, still inhabited by the same family for the last 260 years. The château is testimony to four centuries of French architecture, as a stronghold transformed into an elegant house during the Renaissance and the 18th century. The monument is located in the valley of Le Loir. Its gardens have evolved throughout the centuries.