Cappamore, An Cheapach Mhór, Co. Limerick

An Cheapach Mhór · Co. Limerick

An east Limerick market village on the Mulcair, under the Slieve Felims - and the home parish of John Hayes, The Bull.

Cappamore - An Cheapach Mhór, the large tillage plot - sits twenty kilometres east of Limerick city on the banks of the Mulcair River, with the Slieve Felim Mountains rising behind it toward the Tipperary line. It is a market village in the proper old sense: it grew in the early 1800s around fairs and a creamery, the streets were laid out for cattle and butter, and the dairy hinterland that built it is still what keeps it alive. Six hundred and sixty-eight people at the last count.

It is not on the tourist map and does not pretend to be. Main Street and Moore Street carry a line of 19th-century terraced houses, a church, a couple of pubs, a Centra, a GP and a pharmacy. The creamery that opened in 1902 ran until 1989 and its closing took something out of the place, the way it did in every dairy village in Munster. The parish lost close to half its people in the Famine years between 1841 and 1851 and never fully recovered the numbers. That is the honest shape of the village - a small, busy farming community going about its work.

What Cappamore has that the next village over does not is John Hayes. The Bull. A tighthead prop off a local farm who did not pick up a rugby ball until he was eighteen, then went on to 105 caps for Ireland and over 200 for Munster, the first Irishman to a hundred. He still farms here. The village put up a steel bench shaped like a charging bull in his honour. If you stop in Cappamore for one reason, that is the reason - and a pint while you are at it.

Population

668 (2022 census)

Founded

Grew as a market village in the early 1800s; fairs by 1840

Coords

52.6144° N, 8.3394° W

01 / 07

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The village

A 19th-century market street on the banks of the Mulcair.

Two streets - Main Street and Moore Street - lined with terraced houses, a church spire, a couple of pubs and a Centra. Twenty kilometres east of Limerick city on the R505, under the Slieve Felim hills. A working dairy village, not a tourist one.

Walks & outings → 02 The Bull

John Hayes, 105 Ireland caps, farms here still.

Cappamore's most famous son is a tighthead prop. There is a steel bench shaped like a charging bull on the street to prove it. The story of how a GAA man from a Limerick farm became the first to win 100 caps for Ireland is the one the village tells.

Stories & lore →

02 / 07

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

John Hayes Bar

Local, food, music and sport

Village pub, Main Street

On Main Street, the village local - a pub that does food, live music and the matches, and is the kind of place where the bar is the social centre of the parish. Not connected to the rugby Hayes as far as the name goes, but you will hear plenty about The Bull all the same. The reliable stop for a pint in the village.

The Bridge Inn

Local bar by the Mulcair bridge

Pub, Main Street

Down at the Mulcair end of Main Street near the bridge. A village bar of the ordinary, honest sort - regulars, a stool, the racing on. Between this and John Hayes Bar you have the drinking choices of Cappamore, which is exactly what a village this size should have.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

A farm, a GAA pitch, then 105 caps for Ireland

John Hayes, The Bull

John Hayes was born in Cappamore in 1973 and played hurling and football for the local GAA club before he ever touched a rugby ball - he was eighteen when he started, late by any measure. He went from Bruff RFC to Shannon to Munster, and from there to a tighthead prop's career that made him the first man to win 100 caps for Ireland. He retired in 2011 with 105 caps and more than 200 Munster appearances, a Heineken Cup, and a nickname - The Bull - that fit the way he played. He still works the family farm outside the village. In 2015 the parish commissioned a steel bench shaped like a charging bull from the blacksmith Eric O'Neill and set it on the street: a ball under the bull's feet, the village's quiet way of saying it knows what it produced.

1902 to 1989, and the shape of a dairy village

The creamery years

Cappamore was made by butter and cattle. The fairs were running by 1840, and the co-operative creamery opened in 1902 and ran for the best part of a century until it closed in 1989. For those decades the creamery was the morning rhythm of the whole parish - churns on carts, then on trailers, the queue, the talk, the cheque. When it closed the village kept its dairy hinterland but lost its daily gathering point, the same story told across rural Munster. The agricultural show each August, still one of the bigger dates on the Cappamore calendar, is what is left of the village's life as a market town - and it is a genuinely good day out if your timing is right.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

The two streets and the river Main Street and Moore Street make the whole of the village in a short stroll - the terraced 19th-century houses, the church, the pubs, and the bull bench. Down to the Mulcair bridge and back. It will not take long. Cappamore is a place you read in twenty minutes, not a place you hike.

1.5 km loopdistance

30 minutestime

Slieve Felim and the Multeen valleys The Slieve Felim Mountains rise north and east of the village toward the Tipperary border - low, forested, quiet hills with marked Coillte forest walks and back lanes that see almost no traffic. There is no single signposted Cappamore trail of note; this is drive-and-park, boots-in-the-boot country. Good for a clear afternoon, miserable in low cloud.

Variesdistance

Half a day by cartime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The Slieve Felims green up and the back lanes are at their best. Quiet, mild, nobody about. A good time for the unhurried version of east Limerick.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

The Cappamore Agricultural Show lands in August and is the one day the village genuinely fills - livestock, trade stands, the whole parish out. Time a visit for it if you can. Long evenings for the hill drives the rest of the season.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Hurling and football finishing up at the GAA grounds, the forests on the Slieve Felims turning. Settled and quiet.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days, low cloud on the hills, not much reason to be here unless you have roots or a pint in mind. The pubs keep going regardless.

◐ Mind yourself

06 / 07

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Expecting an attraction

Cappamore is a working dairy village, not a heritage site. There is no castle, no abbey, no visitor centre. The draw is a market street, a river, the hills behind it, and the John Hayes story. Come for a pint and a sense of east Limerick, not for a day of things to see.

The Slieve Felims in bad weather

The hills are the best of the area, but they are low and exposed and turn to grey cloud and wet bog fast. On a poor day you will see nothing. Save the drive for a clear one.

Getting there.

By car

From Limerick city, east on the R505 (via Annacotty / Newport direction) - about 30 minutes, 23 km. The village sits at a crossroads on the R505 with the Mulcair bridge at its centre.

By bus

Bus Éireann route 332 connects Cappamore with Limerick city and Cashel, up to seven times a day. That aside, a car is the practical way in and out.

By train

No station. Limerick Junction (Dublin-Cork-Limerick lines) is about 20 km south-east; Limerick Colbert station is about 23 km west.

By air

Shannon Airport (SNN) is roughly 50 km west, under an hour by car.