Moira is located between the towns of Lurgan County Armagh and Lisburn County Antrim close to the M1 motorway. Many of the buildings in the town are substantially built from black basalt.

The first mentioned in history of the town relates to a battle on 24th June 637 when Domnall II King of Tara defeated his foster son Congall, evidence of the battle came to light when building a railway line close to the town in the 19th century.

The present town was laid out by the Rawdon family in the early years of the 17th century, they also had estates at Ballynahinch County Down, and Donnington Park in Leicestershire (England)

The second Lord Moira was a soldier in America during its War of Independence in 1775. Nothing remains of the house built by the Rawdon's, today the grounds in which it once stood is a public park