Things to do in Roscommon
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Roscommon
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
The worst months, with short days, minimal heritage hours and several guesthouses taking breaks.
Shoulder season improving through spring, with Easter family programming and no crowds.
The season opens properly, with the Roscommon Lamb Festival over the early May bank holiday.
Long evenings past 10pm and the Night and Day Festival at Lough Key in late June.
Peak season, warmest weather and fullest hours, with the Boyle Arts and Percy French festivals in July.
One of the two best months, thinner crowds, Culture Night events and harvest season menus.
Strokestown TradFest in mid October and Samhain events at Rathcroghan, with turning weather.
Quiet season of short days and reduced hours, best for a festive Kilronan break rather than touring.
What's on
- Roscommon Lamb Festival Early May bank holiday weekend
Lamb cookery, sheepdog trials and food and farming events in Roscommon town.
- Night and Day Festival Late June
A boutique music and arts weekend with forest camping at Lough Key Forest Park.
- Boyle Arts Festival Ten days in July
Music, literature, comedy and theatre across Boyle, with the flagship exhibition at King House.
- Percy French Festival July
A celebration of songwriter Percy French at Castlecoote House in high summer.
- Ballygar Carnival August bank holiday weekend
A long running carnival weekend in Ballygar in the south of the county.
- Strokestown TradFest Usually a weekend in October
A traditional music weekend opening at Strokestown Park, with sessions across the town.
Best things to do in Roscommon
Strokestown Park & National Famine Museum
A Georgian mansion beside the National Famine Museum built from this estate's own famine archive, the county's essential visit.
Rathcroghan Visitor Centre
The gateway to Queen Medb's royal landscape, where the guided tour to the Cave of the Cats makes fields into history.
King House
A restored Georgian mansion in Boyle covering the King family, the Connaught Rangers and changing art exhibitions.
Roscommon Castle
A free, climbable 13th century castle ruin in Loughnaneane Park, a few minutes walk from the Square.
Boyle Abbey
One of Ireland's finest Cistercian ruins, a great church by the river five minutes from King House.
Clonalis House
The lived in ancestral home of the O'Conor family, toured in small booked groups through centuries of Irish history.
Roscommon County Museum
A small, staff loved county museum off the Square, a 45 minute window into local archaeology and farming history.
Dr Douglas Hyde Interpretive Centre
A quiet centre on Ireland's first president and the Irish language revival, beside his grave at Portahard.
Where to stay in Roscommon
Roscommon town
default base, dining on foot
The Square's pubs and restaurants, the castle park for evening walks and every county sight 20 to 50 minutes by car.
Boyle and Lough Key
outdoors and northern sights
Lough Key mornings, King House and Boyle Abbey, plus Arigna, Carrick and Kilronan Castle day trips.
Strokestown
heritage and festivals
Walk into Strokestown Park and TradFest events, with the quietest small town evenings in the county.
Castlerea
historic house stays
Really means Clonalis House and its cottages, for O'Conor history and west county roads, eating where you sleep.
Athlone fringe, Lough Ree
lake resort stays
The Hodson Bay Hotel on Roscommon's Lough Ree shore, best for lake and Athlone days rather than Roscommon town.
Think twice about
- Remote rural townlands without a car
Pretty and stranded in equal measure, with no walkable dinner, no taxi depth and every sight a drive away.
- Athlone side bases booked as Roscommon town
Fine lake hotels, but 25 minutes from Roscommon town, so guests expecting to stroll to the Square are misbased.
Best restaurants in Roscommon
Douglas Hyde Restaurant
The county's only fine dining room, with five, eight and ten course menus in Kilronan Castle.
Regan's Gastro Pub and Restaurant
The town's most reviewed dinner, a family gastropub on the Square known for fish, roasts and Sunday lunch.
Gleesons Roscommon
Traditional Irish cooking on the Square, known for its Roscommon stew and a breakfast guests write home about.
Terrace Restaurant
The Abbey Hotel's dining room, the town's special occasion table for Saturday dinner and family celebrations.
Lovage at the Gate Lodge
Boyle's best table, a small vegetarian friendly cafe restaurant by King House doing fusion leaning daytime food.
An Craoibhin
Boyle's beloved cheap pub food address, top rated in town at the lowest price band.
The Comfy Cafe
The town's daytime cafe of record for full Irish breakfasts and home baking, three minutes from the Square.
Molloys Bakery
A working bakery with a cafe trade, the town's best rated cheap breakfast and picnic supply stop.
Outdoor things to do in Roscommon
Lough Key Forest & Activity Park
800 hectares of forest, trails and lakeshore near Boyle, where a walking and picnic day costs little more than parking.
Lough Key Experience
Ireland's first tree canopy walk plus servants tunnels and the Moylurg Tower panorama over the lake and islands.
Zipit Forest Adventures
Graded high ropes and zipline circuits in the Lough Key woods, about three hours with famously encouraging instructors.
Boda Borg
Team quest rooms in the Lough Key visitor centre, tackled in teams of three to five with no instructions given.
Arigna Mining Experience
An underground tour of a 400 year coal mine led by the men who worked it, above Lough Allen.
Moon River
A one hour Shannon cruise from Carrick with a bar and live music, where children get to drive the boat.
Viking Tours Ireland
A Viking styled longship cruise from Athlone into Lough Ree, with longer sailings to Clonmacnoise.
Carrick Craft
Hire your own Shannon cruiser from Carrick for a day or a short break, with handling tuition and no licence needed.
Best hotels in Roscommon
Kilronan Castle Estate & Spa
The county's castle hotel splurge, with a spa, thermal suite and fine dining on the shore of Lough Meelagh.
Clonalis House
A few guest rooms and cottages in the O'Conor family home, with fires, a library and dinner by arrangement.
Abbey Hotel
Roscommon town's full service hotel by the abbey ruins, with a 20 metre pool, leisure centre and Terrace Restaurant.
Gleesons Roscommon
A townhouse guesthouse on Market Square above one of the town's best liked restaurants, with a praised breakfast.
Hodson Bay Hotel
A lakeside resort on the Roscommon shore of Lough Ree with a spa, pool and golf next door.
Percy French Hotel
Strokestown's only hotel, the festival base by default, with a locally loved restaurant and music nights.
Jackson's Restaurant and Accommodation
Simple, central guest rooms above a family restaurant on the Square, five minutes walk from the castle.
Lough Key Forest Park Campsite
Camping and caravan pitches inside Lough Key Forest Park, waking up inside the county's best attraction.
Is Roscommon expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | €55 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | €110 a person |
| Splurge | €240 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Strokestown Park & National Famine Museum: a few days ahead
- Rathcroghan Visitor Centre: a few days ahead
- Clonalis House: weeks ahead
- Roscommon Arts Centre: a few days ahead
- Lough Key Experience: a few days ahead
- Zipit Forest Adventures: a few days ahead
- Boda Borg: a few days ahead
- Arigna Mining Experience: a few days ahead
- Rathcroghan tours run at fixed times and the centre closes on Sundays, so book the tour before travelling.
- Clonalis tours and rooms are limited season and online booking only, and Kilronan spa and dining fill on weekends.
- Zipit and Boda Borg need timed bookings in holidays, and Shannon cruiser hire sells out for summer months ahead.
- Boyle Abbey and other OPW sites run seasonal hours, so verify every opening from November to March.
Is Roscommon safe?
- Emergency number is 112, and the realistic risks are narrow unlit roads, farm traffic and fast changing weather.
- Swim only at designated supervised spots in lakes and the Shannon, and dress for cold fields and the Arigna mine.
Roscommon travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Driving to a seasonally closed heritage site in winter is the county's most common visitor failure.
- There is no nightlife beyond pub music and the Arts Centre, and Carrick-on-Shannon is the region's real party town.
- Do not pay for every Lough Key add on upfront, walk the park first and add paid elements selectively.
- A one day blitz of Rathcroghan, Strokestown, Lough Key and Arigna is drivable but miserable, so do two clusters a day.
Getting around Roscommon: public transport and more
- A car is not optional, as sights sit in a ring 20 to 50 minutes apart and local buses are infrequent.
- Trains serve Roscommon town, Boyle, Castlerea and Carrick for arrival, then hire a car locally and book it ahead.
- Use the Roscommon Revealed pass for 20 percent off four anchor sights after paying full entry at the first.
- Knock Airport is about 52 km away and Dublin Airport about 130 km, with Athlone about 25 minutes south.
Who Roscommon suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Good |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | Not ideal |
| Families | Great |
| Bachelorette parties | Not ideal |
Make Roscommon your trip
Swearby drafts the days from places people swear by. Swap any stop, then invite the crew by text, even friends without the app. Vote on dates, track costs as you go, and everyone gets one number at the end.
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