Roscommon (Ros Comain)
County Roscommon
Roscommon is a county of fertile farmland, extensive bogs and placid lakes.
The Great Famine of 1845-8 had a devastating effect here. Many died and more emigrated when the potato blight destroyed the county’s main food crop.
The famine museum at Strokestown Park House gives a unique insight into the lives of the Irish people who battled against hunger and want.
One of Ireland’s principal lakeside parks, Lough Key Forest Park, is located five miles east of the town of Boyle. Over 840 acres in size, it offers nature walks, ring forts, monuments, cruising, fishing, a bog-garden, an old icehouse, picnic grounds, and a fully serviced caravan and camping park. Deer wander freely through the park.
Clonalis House, a Victorian manor outside of Castlerea, is the ancestral home of the O’Connors, the last High Kings of Ireland and Kings of Connaught. This old Gaelic family can trace its heritage back 1500 years and the ruins of their gabled 17th century home are visible in the grounds.