Welcome to Roscommon!
Roscommon is an inland county situated between the Shannon River, to the east, and its chief tributary, the Suck River, to the west.
The counties main attraction is the beauty of island-dotted lakes. Much of the county is level plain, bogland and river meadow - broken with low hills and many lakes.
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Information Roscommon Ireland
The Irish National Famine Museum is housed in an ascendancy pile in County Roscommon, ironic given the fact that Irish landlords were among the least affected classes when it came to the starvation of hundreds of thousands and emigration of hundreds of thousands more in the mid to late 1840s. However, the deaths of whole families of tenants naturally had a financial and social impact on those whose main income came from rents. Indeed, agents and landlords who evicted tenants for non payment jeopardised not just their livelihoods in risking a search for new tenants in such a depressed market, but their lives too: Seven of them were murdered in 1847 alone.
All of this is dealt with in the stable block of Stokestown House, where reproductions from newspapers and original documentation from the period is on display. Phytophthera Infestans is the scientific name given to the potato blight that afflicted millions of Irish, and the west of Ireland – including Roscommon – was the area worst affected. Other parts of the house can be explored too, to get a feeling as to what the landed gentry might have got up to in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Clonmacnoise in County Offaly is one of the most well preserved monastic settlements in Ireland: Boyle Abbey in County Roscommon is another. On the border with County Sligo, the early Cistercian monastery dates to the middle of the twelfth century. Buildings of both a domestic and religious function can be found, kitchens alongside cloisters gardens, enabling visitors to glean a perspective on life for the inhabitants in accommodations that later served as a garrison for an ally of James I. A gatehouse serves as the entry way – it would have had guards on shift work all day and night to welcome and house guests in monastic times, and it serves as a welcome today too, into the buildings and grounds themselves, that are all well worth a look.
Attractions Roscommon Ireland
Roscommon Tourist Attractions
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Clonalis House - Castlerea
Clonalis is the ancestral home of the O'Connors, Kings of Connaught and the family from which the last High Kings of Ireland came. The O'Conor inauguration stone, similar to the Stone of Scone which lies in Westminster, belonged to the O'Connor clan for 1,500 years. A fascinating historic archive of over 100,000 documents is maintained at Clonalis, including a copy of the last Brehon Law judgement, handed down about 1580. A harp owned by Turlough O'Connor, the blind Irish bard, is on display in the house.
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Elphin Windmill - Elphin
A fully restored, working 18th century windmill, the oldest type in the country. It was perfectly located to harness the winds sweeping over the plains of Elphin. It has a thatched revolving roof and four sails that are turned into the wind by using a tail pole attached to a cartwheel on a circular track.
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King House - Boyle
The house was built in the 1720s by Sir Henry King, King House is one of the most important provincial townhouses in Ireland and Britain. It was home to the Earls of Kingston until 1788 when it became a military barracks for the Connaught Rangers Regiment of the British Army, and later for the Irish Army. Now beautifully restored, King House has a series of exciting interactive exhibitions focusing on Gaelic Ireland, the King Family and their time as landlords, the construction of the house and its military history.
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Roscommon County Museum - Roscommon
The museum has a unique collection of artefacts relating to the history of the county, the town and its people. Formerly a Presbyterian Church, it was built in the 1860s. A collection of horse drawn farm machinery is also displayed in a yard behind the museum.Items on display include a ninth century inscribed slab from St. Comans foundation, Church street Roscommon, a replica of the Cross of Cong with the inscription "made in Roscommon", and a superb example of a "Sheel na Gig" figure from Rahara.
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Roscommon Heritage and Genealogical Centre - Strokestown
Offers a family research service to people with County Roscommon roots. There is a permanent display dealing with Roscommon surnames, around which a series of historical and heritage exhibitions are held each season.The Church of Ireland Church, in which the centre is housed, contains an octagonal nave, a unique architectural feature of its period in Ireland. The centre is open to deal with genealogy all year round.
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The Old Schoolhouse Museum - Ballintubber
The schoolhouse, which dates from 1929, captures the atmosphere of an Irish classroom of the time and reflects a period in Irish education which straddles two centuries. The craft shop and art gallery has a large selection of quality paintings, giftware and knitware, most of which were produced in the county. Home baked produce and an open turf fire will further stimulate the nostalgia and the taste buds in the lovely tea rooms.
Heritage Sites
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Boyle Abbey - Boyle
An impressive and well preserved Cistercian Monastery which was founded in the 12th century under the patronage of the local ruling family, the MacDermotts. Though mutilated during the 17th and 18th centuries when it was used to accommodate a military garrison, Boyle Abbey nevertheless retains its ability to impress the visitor as one of the most formidable of the early Cistercian foundations in Ireland. A restored gatehouse of 16th/17th century houses an exhibition.
The Golf Courses Roscommon Ireland
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Ballaghadereen Golf Club
Ballaghadereen, Co. Roscommon
9 Hole Course Course
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Boyle Golf Course
Boyle, Co. Roscommon
9 nine hole golf course within 5 minutes of the town centre off the N61. Play at any time and pay only a nominal green fee at the club house, which has bar and snack facilities.
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Castlerea Golf Club
Castlerea, Co. Roscommon
Castlerea Golf Club is located adjacent to the town on the N60 (west). This 9 hole course is beside the river Suck and the natural parkland and mature trees form an integral part of this lovely course. The ancestral home of the O'Conor clan can be viewed from the 9th tee.
- Tel: +353 (0)94 96 20068
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Roscommon Golf Club
Roscommon, Co. Roscommon
18 Hole Parkland Course. Roscommon Golf Club is located on rolling pastures adjoining the old Mote Park estate and boasts an 18 hole championship course of outstanding merit. The new 6,290 metre course, situated within half a mile of the town, looks like maturing into one of the very best parkland courses in Ireland.
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Strokestown Golf Club
Strokestown, Co. Roscommon
9 Hole Course. Strokestown Golf Club is situated beside Cloofinlough lake, which is just outside Strokestown in County Roscommon. It's a nine-hole course but don't let that put you off if you are thinking about paying a visit
