County Roscommon Road Trips

County Roscommon is the ancient heartland of Connacht - home to Rathcroghan, the legendary seat of Queen Medb, and the moving Famine Museum at Strokestown.

Why Visit Roscommon?

Ancient Ireland and Famine history:

Rathcroghan - Ancient capital of Connacht
Strokestown - Palladian house with Famine Museum
Boyle Abbey - Fine Cistercian ruins
Lough Key - Forest park with adventure activities
Shannon Callows - Flood meadows rich in wildlife

Top Attractions

Rathcroghan

The ancient capital of Connacht and legendary seat of Queen Medb. The visitor center explains this remarkable archaeological landscape.

Strokestown Park House

A Palladian mansion with original contents, remarkable kitchen, and the award-winning National Famine Museum.

Boyle Abbey

A beautifully preserved Cistercian abbey founded in 1161. The architecture shows the transition from Romanesque to Gothic.

Lough Key Forest Park

Extensive woodland park with walking trails, tree canopy walk, and adventure activities. The ruined castle sits on an island.

Shannon Callows

Seasonal flood meadows along the Shannon, rich in wildflowers and breeding birds - a unique Irish habitat.

Best Time to Visit

Spring (March-May): Shannon Callows wildlife, wildflowers
Summer (June-August): Lough Key activities, longest days
Autumn (September-October): Golden forests, quieter sites
Winter (November-February): Famine Museum powerful in any season

Getting Around

Roscommon town is central, but Boyle and Strokestown both make good bases. Distances are manageable.

The N5 — the road most visitors arrive on

From Dublin you take the M4/N4 as far as Longford, then the N5 west. It runs Termonbarry, Strokestown, Tulsk, Bellanagare, Frenchpark, Ballaghaderreen and on into Mayo. Boyle is not on it — Boyle sits on the N4, north of the N5. The N5 is a single-carriageway national primary road, not a motorway: one lane each way, oncoming traffic, and lorries and tractors the whole way across.

The corridor is mid-rebuild, so what you drive this year is not what the map suggests. TII's N5 Ballaghaderreen to Scramoge scheme, an investment of approximately €450 million, is building over 33 km of new national primary route to replace 35 km of the old road, and it is opening in sections.

Open now. The Frenchpark Bypass, 7 km, opened to traffic on 26 March 2026. It leaves the old N5 at Rathkeery, passes south of Frenchpark village, crosses the R361 Boyle–Williamstown road and rejoins the N5 at Cashel. TII puts that at about 20% of the scheme and expects it to remove "up to 70% of through traffic from Frenchpark village including approx. 400 heavy vehicles each day".

Still a building site. The rest of the scheme is not open. The planned bypasses of Bellanagare, Tulsk and Strokestown do not exist yet, so driving to Strokestown Park House and the National Famine Museum you still go through Tulsk and into Strokestown village on the old road, as you always have. Expect roadworks, temporary speed limits and lane or side-road closures along the corridor while the work goes on. In March 2026 TII said it was working to complete the wider project in 2027.

(Sources: TII press release of 26 March 2026; the scheme's own project site, which specifies a 33.4 km Type 1 single carriageway. No second section had opened as of checking, and we have not driven the new road. Checked September 2026 — sections open one at a time, so check TII or Roscommon County Council before you travel.)