Roslevan is a residential area on the eastern side of Ennis, strung along the Tulla Road. It is housing estates - Oakleigh Wood, Cappahard, Corrovorin, the council schemes at Bridgecourt and Bridgeview - a shopping centre, and the parkland that came with the development. The townland name (Rosslevan, in the civil parish of Kilraghtis) is older than the estates, but what you see today went up mostly in the 2000s. Functionally, this is Ennis.
The anchor is the Roslevan Shopping Centre, a ten-million-euro development that opened in April 2005 on the Tulla Road. It has a SuperValu, a pharmacy, a butcher, a bookmakers, an off-licence, a gym and a bar and restaurant. The Friday farmers market sets up here. There are riverside walks and a few small lakes laid out in the parkland behind the houses. That is the sum of it - this is where people on the east side of Ennis live and do their shopping, not a place you make a special trip for.
If you are staying in Roslevan, Ennis town centre is about two kilometres west - twenty minutes on foot, five by car. The county town is where the pubs, the trad music, the Friary ruins and the proper main street are. Roslevan is the bed and the supermarket. Use the town for everything else.
None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:
The bar and restaurant inside the shopping centre on the Tulla Road. The business has been trading since 1974 and moved out to Roslevan when the centre opened. The kitchen runs internationally and seasonally inspired small plates rather than the usual carvery, which makes it more of a destination than a suburban bar has any right to be. It is the only pub in Roslevan - for anything else, walk into Ennis.
| Place | Type | € | Local note |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Grove | Bar & restaurant, Roslevan Shopping Centre | €€ | Small plates, seasonally led, in the shopping-centre bar. The most ambitious kitchen in Roslevan by default - it is the only one. Trading since 1974, relocated here in 2005. |
| Ennis Farmers Market | Friday market, Roslevan Shopping Centre car park | € | Every Friday morning, roughly 8am to 1pm, the farmers market sets up at the shopping centre. Sourdough, free-range eggs, organic veg, artisan cheese, local meat and pork, jams, hot falafel and quiche, coffee, cut flowers. It relocated out to Roslevan and has held on here since - the one genuinely worth-timing thing in the area. |
Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.
There is no bad time. There are different times.
As good a time as any. The parkland greens up and Ennis is busy without being overrun. Use Roslevan as a quiet base and spend the days in town or out in the Burren.
Long evenings and a handy base for east Clare and the wider county. The shopping centre and the Friday market keep their hours. Book Ennis accommodation early in season.
Quiet, mild, the market still running. A sensible shoulder-season base for exploring Clare without paying town-centre prices.
Short days and not much to do on the spot. The SuperValu, the Grove and the gym keep going, but you will be driving into Ennis for the evening either way.
If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.
It is a residential suburb of Ennis on the Tulla Road, not a destination village. There is no old core, no castle, no monastic ruin. The shopping centre, the parkland and the Friday market are the whole of it. Come here to sleep and shop; go into Ennis for everything else.
Ennis is one of the great trad towns in Ireland, with sessions most nights. None of that is in Roslevan. The Grove is a good bar, but the music is two kilometres west in the town centre. Make the short trip in.
On the Tulla Road (R352) on the eastern edge of Ennis. Ennis town centre is about 2 km west. The Roslevan Shopping Centre is roughly 1.6 km from junction 13 of the M18, so the motorway to Limerick, Shannon and Galway is on the doorstep.
Ennis is the bus hub for Clare. Bus Eireann and Local Link services run from Ennis bus station in the town centre; there is no long-distance stop in Roslevan itself. Walk or take a short bus or taxi the 2 km into town for connections.
Ennis railway station, in the town centre about 2 km west, is on the Limerick-Ennis-Galway line with through services to Limerick Colbert and Galway Ceannt. No station in Roslevan.
Shannon Airport (SNN) is about 35 minutes south by car via the M18. The most convenient airport for the whole of Clare.