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BELLANAMULLIA

CO. ROSCOMMON · IE

Bellanamullia
Béal Átha na Múille, Co. Roscommon

The Ireland's Hidden Heartlands
STOP 09 / 09

Béal Átha na Múille · Co. Roscommon

The Roscommon edge of Athlone, where the dormitory estates run out and a portal tomb older than the pyramids sits in a field off the main road.

Bellanamullia - or Bealnamulla, depending on which sign you read - is the Roscommon edge of Athlone, four kilometres west of the town centre on the R362, just over the county line where Athlone stops being Westmeath. For census purposes it is rolled into the Monksland-Bellanamullia suburb, a band of modern housing estates, a business park and the pharma plants that grew up here in the 2000s. If you came looking for a tidy village green you came to the wrong place. This is a commuter edge, and honest about it.

The Irish name, Béal Átha na Múille, means "mouth of the mill ford", and the mill it remembers is still standing - rebuilt. Kelly's mill in the 1830s, Doyle's mill from 1865, burnt out in 1925 and empty for most of a century until a Doyle descendant turned it back into a working bar, restaurant and B&B. That is the village's one proper anchor.

What earns the village a place in this book is the field a kilometre to the south. The Meehambee Dolmen is a portal tomb from around 3,500 BC, older than Newgrange, older than the pyramids, with a 24-tonne capstone leaning at an angle on its surviving uprights. Almost nobody stops. You reach it on a bridle path off the main road, and most of the traffic streaming past to Monksland has no idea it is there.

Use the village as it is meant to be used - as a doorstep to Athlone. The town, Sean's Bar, the castle, the Shannon and Lough Ree are all ten minutes east. The bus into the station runs through Bealnamulla all day. The dolmen and the quiet Roscommon townlands toward Drum and Clonown are the reward for getting off the main road.

Population

Part of the Monksland-Bellanamullia suburb of Athlone (~4,450 in the wider 2011 electoral division)

Pubs

1and counting

Walk score

Bridle path off the R362 to a 5,500-year-old dolmen in twenty minutes

Founded

Townland in the civil parish of St Peter's; grew rapidly with Athlone's western expansion in the 2000s

Coords

53°25'37"N 8°00'51"W

01 / 09

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 place

Athlone's western suburb, four kilometres out, just over the Roscommon line.

Béal Átha na Múille means "mouth of the mill ford" - the place name remembers a corn mill that stood here long before the housing estates. For census purposes it is lumped in with Monksland as a suburb of Athlone, and the two run together along the R362.

Stories & lore → 02 The stone

Meehambee Dolmen - a Neolithic portal tomb a kilometre south.

Around 3,500 BC, a 24-tonne sandstone capstone, reached by a bridle path off the R362. The back support collapsed centuries ago and the cap slid to its present forty-five-degree lean. Two stone axes turned up beside it in the 1960s, found by local schoolchildren.

Walks & outings → 03 The mill

Doyle's old mill is now The Mill Bar and the Cornloft restaurant.

Kelly's mill in the 1830s, taken over by Athlone corn-merchant James Doyle in 1865, burnt out by accident in 1925, then left standing empty for decades. His great-grandson Neil O'Shea brought it back as a pub, restaurant and B&B. The one place in the village that does all three jobs.

Pubs & food →

02 / 09

The pubs.

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

The Mill Bar

Restored mill, locals and diners

Pub, restaurant & B&B, Old Tuam Road

The one pub in the village, and effectively the village centre. Built into Doyle's restored 19th-century corn mill on the old Tuam Road. A bar at the front, the Cornloft restaurant alongside, rooms above. The bar is the easiest place in Bealnamulla to fall into conversation, and the restaurant pulls a steady local crowd. If you are staying out here rather than in town, this is where your evening happens.

03 / 09

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
The Cornloft	Restaurant at The Mill Bar, Old Tuam Road	€€	Built into the old mill alongside the bar, and very popular with locals. Steak and slow-roasted duck are the dishes people come back for, with pasta and pizza filling out the menu. The kitchen flags coeliac-friendly soups and sauces and caters properly for dietary needs and vegetarians. Worth booking at the weekend. The only sit-down dinner in the village - for anything else you are heading into Athlone.

04 / 09

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
The Mill Bar B&B	Rooms above the pub, Old Tuam Road	A small bed-and-breakfast above the bar and restaurant in the restored mill. Handy if you want to be on the quiet Roscommon side of Athlone with a pint and a dinner downstairs and the town ten minutes away. For a wider choice of beds, the big Athlone hotels - Hodson Bay, the Sheraton, the Radisson - are a short drive east.

05 / 09

Stories & lore.

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

A portal tomb, c. 3,500 BC

Meehambee Dolmen

A kilometre south of the village in the townland of Mihanboy stands one of the midlands' better-kept secrets - a Neolithic portal tomb older than the pyramids. The surviving portal stone is 2.3 metres high; the sandstone capstone measures roughly four metres by two and a half and is reckoned to weigh around 24 tonnes. Sometime after the medieval period the rear support collapsed, and the capstone slid back to the forty-five-degree lean you see today. Two polished stone axes were found beside it in the 1960s by local schoolchildren. It is a Recorded Monument under the National Monuments Acts, reached by a bridle path off the R362, and you will very likely have it to yourself.

A corn mill, a fire, a comeback

Doyle's mill

The village is named for a mill ford, and the mill itself outlived the name's literal meaning. It was Kelly's mill in the 1830s, bought in 1865 by James Doyle, an Athlone corn-merchant, and gutted by an accidental fire in 1925. The shell sat empty for the best part of a century. Neil O'Shea, a great-grandson of James Doyle, rebuilt it as The Mill Bar, with the Cornloft restaurant and a small B&B above. The kind of slow family restoration that does not happen in a dormitory suburb very often.

Bishop Michael Duignan

Educated here

Michael Duignan, who became Roman Catholic Bishop of Clonfert and later of Galway and Kilmacduagh, was educated in the village. A small footnote, but the sort of thing a place like this keeps hold of. The local Cloonakilla National School still carries the schooling tradition; a handball alley was built in the village in 1928, and Bealnamulla has long fielded a Ladies Football club through the underage grades to senior.

06 / 09

Things to do outside.

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

Meehambee Dolmen The reason to stop. A signed bridle path leaves the R362 a kilometre south of the village and leads to the portal tomb in its field. Boots in wet weather - it is a working agricultural landscape, not a manicured site. The leaning 24-tonne capstone is the picture. Respect the surrounding farmland and leave gates as you find them.

Short bridle path off the R362distance

20-30 minutes returntime

Toward Drum and Clonown South and west of the village the modern estates give out and the old Roscommon townlands take over. Drum, about five kilometres on, has a monastic site and the Drum Heritage Centre; Clonown sits in the callows between Drum and the Shannon. Flat, low, watery country - the genuine Hidden Heartlands once you turn off the main road.

Quiet country roadsdistance

1 hour-plus by car or biketime

07 / 09

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Long enough evenings to walk out to the dolmen after the traffic dies down, and the Shannon callows toward Clonown come back to life. Athlone is busy without being mobbed.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

The base-camp season. Lough Ree, the Shannon cruisers and Athlone's restaurants are all minutes east, and the bus into town runs late enough to leave the car behind.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Quiet, mild and good for the field walk to Meehambee before the ground turns. The Cornloft is a fair wet-evening dinner.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days, and the dolmen path will be muddy and dark early. The Mill Bar keeps the lights on, but there is little reason to stay out here over town in deep winter.

◐ Mind yourself

08 / 09

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

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

Expecting a village centre

There is no square, no row of shops, no postcard core. Bellanamullia is a townland that became a commuter suburb of Athlone. The Mill Bar is the social centre and the dolmen is the heritage. Set your expectations to "doorstep of Athlone", not "Hidden Heartlands village", and it delivers.

Driving past Meehambee

Almost everyone does. The dolmen is signed off the R362 but easy to blow past at speed on the way to Monksland's retail parks. It is 5,500 years old and you will likely have it alone. Stop.

Treating Monksland's retail park as the destination

The shopping centre, the supermarkets and the chain stores at Monksland serve the suburb; they are not why you came to Roscommon. Use them for supplies, then get back on the small roads toward Drum and the river.

Getting there.

By car

Athlone town centre is 4 km east on the R362; from there the M6 reaches Dublin in about 1h 30m and Galway in under an hour. The village sits just west of the Westmeath-Roscommon county line.

By bus

Athlone town bus routes A1 and A2 (Bus Éireann) start at Bealnamulla and run through Monksland to the Bus and Rail Station and on to AIT, all day. The easiest way into the town centre without the car.

By train

Athlone railway station, beside the bus station and about 4 km east, is an interchange on the Dublin-Galway line and the Dublin-Westport line. Dublin Heuston is roughly 1h 30m, Galway under an hour.

By air

Dublin Airport (DUB) is about two hours by road via the M6/M4. The most frequent option for international visitors; Shannon (SNN) is a similar drive to the southwest.