The device used to measure wind speed at every weather station in the world was invented at Armagh Observatory and Planetarium.
From the same hill, for more than 230 years, astronomers have studied the stars and the cosmos while, just outside, someone has gone out every single morning to record the weather on Earth.
Two of the longest-running scientific endeavours — one looking up at the universe, one recording life on this planet — running side by side, on the same site.
Armagh Observatory and Planetarium is the oldest observatory in the UK and Ireland continuously in use for its original purpose. The Planetarium at the foot of the hill is the longest-running in the British Isles. The Observatory building is normally open to no more than 15 visitors at a time, once a month. Very few people have ever been inside.
During National Lottery Open Week, that changes.
A powerful wind storm swept across Ireland on the night of January 6, 1839. At Armagh Observatory, Director Thomas Romney Robinson recorded it in the weather log as “a tremendous gale in the night”.
It was the worst storm in Irish recorded history — and it directly inspired Robinson to invent the cup anemometer: the rotating device that measures wind speed, now used at weather stations, on ships and at airports all over the world.
An anemometer dating from around 1870 — one of the oldest in the world — still stands on the roof of the Observatory today, though it is no longer used to measure wind speed.
The weather station at Armagh has recorded the temperature, pressure and rainfall every single day since July 14, 1795 — one of the longest continuous daily weather records in the British Isles, and the longest in Ireland. The World Meteorological Organisation has recognised the station with its Centennial Observing Station award. The records are now accessible online, going back more than 230 years.
A hundred metres up the hill, inside the same grounds, the telescopes have been pointed at the night sky for just as long — cataloguing stars and nebulae in the 19th Century, and today carrying out active astrophysics research on stars, the solar system and beyond. The same site. The same unbroken commitment. One looking out at the universe; one keeping watch over the world below.
Many people in Armagh know the Planetarium. Very few have been into the Observatory. The two buildings sit on the same 20-acre site, connected by landscaped grounds — but the Observatory is a working research facility, normally open to just 15 visitors at a time, once a month.
The building was constructed around the Troughton telescope — the world’s oldest telescope still in its original setting — which remains inside to this day. Between the two buildings, the weather station sits in its enclosure in the grounds.
The Astropark — with scale models of the Solar System, the Human Orrery, a stone calendar and woodland walks — is open 24 hours a day, free to all. During National Lottery Open Week, the Observatory itself opens up too.
Sinéad Mackle has been Education and Outreach Manager for 17 years — she first came here on a school trip as a child.
Sinéad said: “Very few people have actually been into the Observatory itself — to see the inner workings of it. We can only take 15 visitors at a time. Families might have been to the Planetarium before but many have never actually been into the Observatory building.
“When visitors come in, they can touch the Calver telescope, move it around — it’s almost like you’re re-enacting what the astronomers in the 1800s were doing when they went out to observe.
“And even some people in Armagh don’t realise the cup anemometer was invented here. I’m very privileged to work here and try to give people that emotional connection to astronomy — whether it sends them into astrophysics as a career or just sparks an amateur interest that lasts a lifetime, that’s a win for me.”
The National Lottery Open Week offers
- 50% off Legendary Telescope Tour — Saturday, March 14. 50% off with code Openweek26. Includes an expert-guided tour of the Observatory building, including a chance to touch the historic Calver telescope, plus access to the Planetarium exhibition area. One ticket or scratchcard per booking. Pre- booking essential at www.armagh.space
- 50% off dome shows — March 7-15 (closed Monday, March 9). 50% off with code Openweek26. Hourly shows from 10.30am–4pm Sat & Sun; from 2pm Tue–Fri. One ticket or scratchcard per booking. Pre-booking essential at www.armagh.space
National Lottery Heritage Fund investment of more than £1.7 million has been central to Armagh’s work. The most recent grant — £1,323,381 awarded in 2024 — is funding a major redevelopment of the site and has enabled the appointment of a collections officer and volunteer officer, helping bring the Observatory’s historic archives and collections out of storage and into public view for the first time.
“Getting that Heritage Fund grant kickstarted our redevelopment process,” says Sinéad. “We’re on a journey now.”
