POSTED FROM

CASTLEPLUNKET

CO. ROSCOMMON · IE

Castleplunket
Lios Lachna, Co. Roscommon

The Ireland's Hidden Heartlands
STOP 07 / 07

Lios Lachna · Co. Roscommon

A crossroads village in the cattle country south of Rathcroghan, named for a castle that is no longer there, and a short walk from the mound where the kings of Connacht were made.

Castleplunket is a small village in the flat cattle country of north-central Roscommon, at the meeting of the R367 and R377 about ten kilometres east of Castlerea. It is named for a castle nobody can show you. The Plunkett family, dispossessed of land near Dublin and Meath, were given estates here under the Cromwellian Settlement in the 1650s and built a fortified house on the rise north of the village. It outlived its usefulness as a home, did a turn as a fever house in a cholera year, and then came down. The stone went into paddock walls and fence repairs, the way old stone does in this part of the country.

What is worth coming for is not the village but the ground around it. This is the southern fringe of the Rathcroghan complex - over two hundred recorded monuments spread across the fields of Tulsk and Carnfree, the royal landscape of Connacht and the setting-off point of the Tain. A short distance from the village is Carnfree, the inauguration mound of the O'Conor kings. Felim O'Connor was made king of Connacht on it in 1310 in a ceremony the annals describe in detail, and the proclamation stone on top was used until 1641.

The village itself is a school, a pub, and a junction. Roderic O'Conor, the post-impressionist painter who worked alongside Gauguin at Pont-Aven, was born in the Castleplunket area in 1860; the family seat was at Milton nearby. Beyond that, Castleplunket is a quiet place where you stop for directions, a pint, or because you took the wrong turn off the Tulsk road. Take the visitor centre at Tulsk as your real base for the archaeology, and let Castleplunket be the back-roads version of the same story.

Population

Village around 250; the wider electoral division 563 (2022)

Pubs

1and counting

Founded

Plunkett castle built after the Cromwellian Settlement, c. 1655

Coords

53.7500° N, 8.3333° 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 name

Castleplunket - a castle gone, a name that stayed.

The Plunketts came west under the Cromwellian Settlement of the 1650s, having lost estates on the Dublin and Meath borders. The first of them put up a fortified house on the rising ground north of the village. It later served as a fever house, then fell, and its stone went into field walls. The Irish name, Lios Lachna, predates all of that.

Stories & lore → 02 The mound

Carnfree, where the O'Conor kings of Connacht were inaugurated.

A low Bronze Age cairn on a rock outcrop a few fields away, on the southern edge of the Rathcroghan landscape. Felim O'Connor was proclaimed king of Connacht here in 1310, and the ritual ran on into the seventeenth century. Most people drive to Rathcroghan and never learn this is here.

Walks & outings → 03 The size of it

A school, a pub, a crossroads. That is the village.

Around 250 people, a national school, Flanagan's pub, and the junction of the R367 and R377 about ten kilometres east of Castlerea. It is a place you pass through on the way to the archaeology, not a destination in itself. Honest about that.

Getting there →

02 / 07

The pubs.

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

Flanagan's

The one pub, and the village social centre

Village pub

Flanagan's is the pub in Castleplunket - a small country bar at the crossroads that doubles as the place the village gathers. Do not arrive expecting food service or late opening; this is a rural local, not a gastropub. Ring ahead if hours matter to you. It is the honest version of an Irish village pub, which is the only version Castleplunket has.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

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

The Plunketts, after Cromwell

The castle that became field walls

The Plunketts arrived in Mag Aoi during the Cromwellian Settlement of 1652 to 1655, transplanted west after losing larger estates on the Dublin and Meath borders. The first of them built a strong house on the rising ground north of the village, and the family held it for roughly a century. It was later given over as a pest house for cholera victims, fell into ruin, and its stone was carted off to enclose paddocks and mend fences. The castle gave the village its English name and then disappeared into the landscape it had named. The Irish name, Lios Lachna, the fort of Lachna, was there long before the Plunketts and outlasted them.

Carnfree and the O'Conors

Where the kings were made

On the southern edge of the Rathcroghan landscape, a Bronze Age cairn of stone about ten metres across and two metres high sits on a rock outcrop. This is Carnfree, Carn Fraoich, said to be the cairn of the warrior Fraoch, and it was the inauguration place of the O'Conor kings of Connacht. The annals record the proclamation of Felim O'Connor here in 1310, joined by the noble who handed him the rod of kingship, the keeper of the keys of the mound, and twelve bishops. The proclamation stone, with footmarks supposedly left by Conn of the Hundred Battles, was used until 1641. A new king had to step into the marks to be made. It is the kind of site that has a national monument's worth of meaning and almost none of the visitors.

Roderic O'Conor, 1860-1940

Roscommon's forgotten painter

Roderic O'Conor was born in the Castleplunket area in October 1860 into the O'Conor family, whose seat was at Milton nearby. He trained in Dublin and Antwerp, moved to France, and by 1892 was at Pont-Aven in Brittany working in the orbit of Paul Gauguin. His striped, high-colour post-impressionist canvases put him among the most serious Irish painters of his generation, though he spent almost his whole working life abroad and is still half-forgotten at home. The fields of north Roscommon are where he started.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

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

Carnfree inauguration mound The O'Conor inauguration cairn on its rock outcrop, on the southern fringe of the Rathcroghan complex between Castleplunket and Tulsk. It is a modest-looking mound until you know what happened on it. Access is across farmland and the ground can be wet; wear boots and respect stock and gates. Pair it with the Rathcroghan Visitor Centre at Tulsk, which explains the whole landscape before you walk it.

Short walk from the roaddistance

30-45 minutestime

Rathcroghan complex from Tulsk A few minutes north of Castleplunket. Over two hundred monuments - the great mound of Rathcroghan itself, Oweynagat the cave of the cats, ringforts and standing stones - spread across working farmland. Start at the Rathcroghan Visitor Centre in Tulsk for maps, context and access advice, because the sites are on private land and the signage alone will not get you far.

Several kilometres of marked sitesdistance

Half a daytime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The best time for the archaeology. The fields around Carnfree and Rathcroghan are green, the ground is drying out, and the light is good for walking open monuments. The visitor centre at Tulsk is open and quiet.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long evenings and the driest ground of the year, which matters when half the sites are across farmland. The Hidden Heartlands sees a fraction of the west-coast crowds, so you will mostly have the monuments to yourself.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Fine in early autumn, but the ground turns soft quickly. Check opening hours at the Tulsk centre before you travel out this far.

◐ Mind yourself

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days, wet fields, and not much open in the village itself. The archaeology is hard going underfoot. Come for it another season.

◐ 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.

Looking for the castle

There is no castle to see. The Plunkett house came down long ago and the stone went into field walls. The name is the only thing that survived. Do not drive out expecting a ruin.

Treating Castleplunket as the Rathcroghan visitor stop

It is not. The interpretation, parking, maps and access advice are all at the Rathcroghan Visitor Centre in Tulsk, a few minutes north. Start there, then come to Castleplunket and Carnfree on the back roads.

Expecting a strip of pubs, cafes and shops

It is a school, a pub and a junction of around 250 people. There is no main street to wander. Scale your expectations to a small Roscommon crossroads village and it delivers exactly what it is.

Getting there.

By car

Castleplunket sits at the junction of the R367 and R377, about 10 km east of Castlerea and roughly 30 km from Roscommon town. From the N5 (Longford to Westport) turn off near Tulsk and follow the R367. The Rathcroghan Visitor Centre at Tulsk is a few minutes north on the N5.

By bus

No regular service through the village itself. The nearest scheduled buses run through Castlerea and Tulsk; Local Link Roscommon covers the rural routes in this part of the county on limited days, so check timetables before relying on it. In practice you need a car out here.

By train

Castlerea is on the Dublin to Westport line (Irish Rail), about 10 km west, with services to Dublin Heuston and Westport. From the station it is a taxi or lift the rest of the way.