It is situated in the civil parish of Ballymore and the historic barony of Orior Lower[1] within the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon area.

This place was an encumbered pass through bogs and woods, from the county of Down into that of Armagh, and from the O'Hanlons' to the Magennises' country: it derives its present name from this important military position having been forced, after a desperate action, by Lieut.

Poyntz, of the English army, with a few troops, against a numerous body of Tyrone's soldiers, for which service he was rewarded with a grant of 500 acres [2 km²] in this barony: there are some remains of the castle that commanded the pass.

That portion of the town which is in the county of Armagh was built about 1790, by Mr. Stewart, then proprietor, who procured for it a grant of a market and fairs; the former was never established, but the latter, held on the first Saturday in every month, are large and well attended, great numbers of cattle and sheep being sold.

It contains the church for the district of Acton, a small neat edifice in the early English style, with a tower at the east front, built in 1789, and considerably enlarged and improved in 1829; a R. C. chapel, a school, and a constabulary police station.

On 3 March 1998, 26-year old Catholic Damian Trainor and 34-year old Presbyterian Philip Allen, were shot dead during a Loyalist Volunteer Force gun attack on the Railway Bar in Poyntzpass.