POSTED FROM

CLOONFAD

CO. ROSCOMMON · IE

Cloonfad
Cluain Fada, Co. Roscommon

The Ireland's Hidden Heartlands
STOP 07 / 07

Cluain Fada · Co. Roscommon

A long meadow on the corner where Roscommon, Mayo and Galway meet, with a walking network that outclasses the village.

Cloonfad sits at the crossroads of the N83 and the R327, about 10 km east of Ballyhaunis in County Mayo. The Irish, Cluain Fada, means "long meadow", and that is the landscape: low, open, moorland running up to the edge of things, the sky doing most of the work. This is the far west of Roscommon, where the county runs out against Mayo and Galway.

It is a small place and honest about it. Around 376 people at the 2022 census, up steadily from 209 in 2006, which for rural Connacht is a quiet kind of good news. There is one pub, a shop, a post office, a hair salon and a beauty parlour. The Church of St Patrick, built in 1934, anchors the village. Cloonfad United play soccer and the handball club, going since the 1930s, is one of the older sporting bodies in the parish.

What lifts Cloonfad above its size is the walking. The community laid out seven looped trails totalling 25 km on the old green roads their grandparents used to get to school, to market and to a neighbour's house for a session. They run on grass and bog rather than road, out toward Slieve Dart, with a children's Fairy Trail along the Galway border and a kilometre of flat tarmac path for buggies and wheelchairs. That is real work, locally done, and it is the thing worth driving in for.

Do not come expecting much more than that. This is a base and a walk and a pint, not a day out in itself. But if you are crossing the middle of the country and want an hour on a bog track and a fire in a country bar afterward, Cloonfad does the job better than places three times its size.

Population

376 (2022 census)

Pubs

1and counting

Walk score

Seven looped trails, 25 km in total, off the village square

Founded

Church of St Patrick built 1934; walks on green roads centuries older

Coords

53°41'31"N 8°44'33"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 border

The corner where three counties touch.

Roscommon, Mayo and Galway meet within a few fields of here, which is how the one pub got its name. Ballyhaunis in Mayo is 10 km west on the N83; the Galway border runs along the edge of the walks. You are properly in the middle of Connacht.

Walks & outings → 02 The walks

Seven looped trails, 25 km, off the square.

The Cloonfad Scenic Walks are the reason to stop. Seven interconnecting loops from 3 km to 7 km, grassy boreens and bog tracks rather than tarmac, out under Slieve Dart. The community built and minds them. Better than the village strictly needs.

Walks & outings → 03 The priest

Fr James Horan ran this parish before he built Knock Airport.

The man who put an international airport on a Mayo bog and brought Pope John Paul II to Knock was parish priest in Cloonfad from 1959 to 1963. He drained land and planted forestry here first. The ambition was already showing.

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:

The Three Counties

Warm, sociable, a proper rural local

Village pub & sports bar (also known as McGuires)

The one pub, right in the heart of the village, named for the Galway-Mayo-Roscommon corner it sits on. Run by Dolores and Pat Donnellan, who understand that in rural Ireland a warm room is half the offer. A lounge with a dance floor under a circular skylight, a well-played juke box, pool, and the kind of bar that does not serve food and does not need to. The social centre of Cloonfad, plainly.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

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

Cloonfad, 1959 to 1963

Fr Horan's first big parish

James Horan - later Monsignor Horan, the "builder of Knock" - was parish priest in Cloonfad from 1959 to 1963 before he was moved to Knock. Even here, in a small border parish, the pattern was set: he organised drainage schemes and an afforestation committee, putting the land to work. At Knock he went on to build the basilica, invite Pope John Paul II in 1979, and force an international airport onto a bog at Charlestown against every official objection. He died in 1986 months after it opened, and his was the first funeral flown into the airport he had fought for. The ambition that did all that was already showing on the roads around Cloonfad.

Built 1932 to 1934

The Church of St Patrick

The present church was built between 1932 and 1934. Thomas Gilmartin, Archbishop of Tuam, blessed the foundation stone in December 1932, and the finished church was dedicated on 12 August 1934. Fr Horan added the porches during his time here; the sanctuary was reordered in 1960 for the new liturgy and the building was renovated again in the late 1990s. The parish has put out The Cloonfad Magazine every year since 1992 - the kind of small, stubborn local record that tells you a place still thinks of itself as a place.

Roscommon, Mayo, Galway

Where three counties meet

Cloonfad sits in the far western elbow of Roscommon, close to where the county lines of Mayo and Galway converge. The pub trades on it - The Three Counties - and so does the geography: the Fairy Trail on the scenic walks runs right along the Galway-Roscommon boundary near the N83. It is a genuinely confusing patch of map, which is half the charm. Bring a map and do not trust your sense of which county you are standing in.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

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

Cloonfad Scenic Walks (the loops) Seven interconnecting looped walks laid out and maintained by the local community on old green roads and boreens. Mostly grass, bog track and forestry rather than tarmac, with a variety of habitats - farmland, forest, open bog - and the wild flanks of Slieve Dart above. Two Sli na Slainte routes are included. Pick a short loop or string several together; signage starts near the village. Boots in any season - this is bog.

3 km to 7 km loops, 25 km in totaldistance

1 to 4 hourstime

The Fairy Trail A children's route built along the Galway-Roscommon border close to the N83. Easy going and the obvious one to do with small people in tow.

Short child-friendly routedistance

30 to 45 minutestime

Accessible tarmac path A flat tarmacadam path laid so that wheelchair users and buggies get a share of the outdoors too. Not scenic in the bog-track sense, but a genuine and rare bit of access in a place this rural.

1 kmdistance

20 minutestime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The bog and forestry green up and the walks are at their best before the midges arrive. Long light, firm ground after a dry spell.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Longest evenings for the loops and the Fairy Trail with children. Bring repellent for the bog stretches.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Colour on the forestry, fewer people, and a fire in The Three Counties afterward. Probably the best time.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days and wet, heavy ground on the bog tracks. The pub keeps the lights on, but the walks turn to mud. Stick to the tarmac path if it is sodden.

◐ 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.

Treating Cloonfad as a destination

It is not one, and does not pretend to be. There is one pub, a shop and a church. Come for the walks and a pint, or come as a base. Do not arrive expecting a day's sightseeing in the village itself.

The walks without boots

These are bog tracks and green roads, not a promenade. After rain they are genuinely wet. Wear proper footwear or stick to the 1 km tarmac accessible path.

Looking for somewhere to eat

The pub does not do food and there is no restaurant. Stock up in Ballyhaunis or Castlerea, or eat before you come. Cloonfad is a drink-and-a-walk place, not a dining one.

Getting there.

By car

On the N83 about 10 km east of Ballyhaunis (Mayo) and at the junction with the R327. Castlerea is roughly 20 km east, Roscommon town about 45 km southeast. The Mayo and Galway borders are within a few fields, so the map gets fiddly - trust the road numbers over your instincts.

By bus

No regular village bus service. Ballyhaunis, 10 km west, is the nearest town with public transport; check TFI Local Link for rural routes in the Castlerea and Ballyhaunis area.

By train

The nearest station is Ballyhaunis on the Dublin-Westport/Ballina line (about 10 km west by road), with services through Athlone to Dublin Heuston.

By air

Ireland West Airport Knock (NOC) is about 30 km north - fittingly, the airport Fr Horan built after his years in this parish. It is the obvious option for visitors flying in.