Brougher Mountain transmitting station is a major transmitting station in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. It is located between

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. Its county town is Omagh. Adjoined to the south-west shore of Lough Neagh, the cou ...

and

County Fermanagh County Fermanagh ( ; ) is one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of six counties of Northern Ireland. The county covers an area of and had a population of 63,585 as of 2021. Enniskillen is the ...

, on top of a high hill called Brougher Mountain. Despite being located in County Tyrone it is sometimes referred to as the "Enniskillen" or "Fermanagh" transmitter. It has four other transmitter sites in its digital television transmitter group, at Ederny, Derrygonnelly,

Belcoo Belcoo ( ()Flanagan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 172. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. is a small village and townland in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, from Enniskillen. It is on the County Fermanagh/County Cavan border besid ...

, and

Lisbellaw Lisbellaw () is a village in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, about east of Enniskillen Enniskillen ( , from , ' Ceithlenn's island') is the largest town in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is in the middle of the county, betwee ...

. Brougher Mountain came into service on 24 February 1964, transmitting the BBC Television Service on VHF 405 lines channel B5. The ITV service provided by

Ulster Television UTV (formerly Ulster Television, branded on air as ITV1 since 2020) is the ITV (TV network), ITV region covering Northern Ireland, ITV subsidiary and the former on-air name of the free-to-air public broadcast television channel serving the ar ...

launched from the

Strabane Strabane (; ) is a town in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Strabane had a population of 13,507 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census. This article contains quotations from this source, which is available under th Open Government Li ...

transmitter located 40 miles north of Brougher Mountain on 18 February 1963 and its coverage extended down to the area covered by Brougher Mountain. prior to date the only television service available in many parts of its service area was from Telefís Éireann's Truskmore transmitter which opened in 1962. It became the main UHF transmitter for the area in July 1978, when

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

and UTV started transmitting in colour on the 625 line UHF service and was the last main transmitting station in the UK to be equipped for UHF.

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

started transmitting from the transmitter in December 1983. Due to its close proximity to the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

, since the transmitter went on air in 1964, many living in counties

Cavan Cavan ( ; ) is the county town of County Cavan in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town lies in Ulster, near the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The town is bypassed by the main N3 road (Ireland), N3 road that links Dublin ( ...

Monaghan Monaghan ( ; ) is the county town of County Monaghan, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It also provides the name of its Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish and Monaghan (barony), Monaghan barony. The population of the town as of the 2022 cen ...

, Donegal, Leitrim,

Roscommon Roscommon (; ; ) is the county town and the largest town in County Roscommon in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is roughly in the centre of Ireland, near the meeting of the N60 road (Ireland), N60, N61 road (Ireland), N61 and N63 road (Irelan ...

and

Sligo Sligo ( ; , meaning 'abounding in shells') is a coastal seaport and the county town of County Sligo, Ireland, within the western province of Connacht. With a population of 20,608 in 2022, it is the county's largest urban centre (constituting 2 ...

could receive the UK channels via spill-over signals from Brougher Mountain, as well as the Strabane transmitter. During the mid-1980s Brougher Mountain was only one of three original BBC main FM transmitters in Northern Ireland affected by the frequency changes arising from the 1984 Geneva (FM) Frequency plan with all (then) three services moving up 0.5 MHz although across the border in the Republic of Ireland the RTE's FM transmitter network were more extensively affected. The site was the location of an

Provisional IRA The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA), officially known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA; ) and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland ...

bombing on the 9th February 1971, which left 5

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

workers dead when their vehicle was destroyed by a landmine. The workers were travelling up the mountain to repair the transmitter when the landmine, which was detonated by a tripwire, detonated. It has been suggested that the booby trap was in fact set to target members of the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

, who regularly patrolled in the border area.

Services transmitted by frequency

Analogue radio

Digital radio

Digital television

Including Sept 2019 Frequency changes. *NImux contains

TG4 TG4 (; , ) is an Irish free-to-air public service television channel. It launched on 31 October 1996 and is available online and through its on-demand service TG4 Player in Ireland and beyond. TG4 was initially known as (TnaG), before bein ...

, RTÉ One,

RTÉ Two (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Republic of Ireland, Irish Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, television, RT� ...

and

RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta (; "Radio of the Gaeltacht"), abbreviated RnaG, is an Irish language radio station owned and operated by Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). The station is available on FM in Ireland and via satellite and on the inter ...

and transmits from this and two other sites in Northern Ireland.

Before switchover

Analogue television (before 24 October 2012)

References

External links

Picture of Brougher Mountain from the air

Photos and some technical history

MB21 Transmission Gallery
{{Divis_VHF_405-line_Transmitter_Group Transmitter sites in Northern Ireland Buildings and structures in County Fermanagh 1964 establishments in Northern Ireland