POSTED FROM

KNOCKCROGHERY

CO. ROSCOMMON · IE

Knockcroghery
Cnoc an Chrochaire, Co. Roscommon

The Ireland's Hidden Heartlands
STOP 08 / 08

Cnoc an Chrochaire · Co. Roscommon

The village that made clay pipes for 300 years, was burned to the ground in 1921, and rebuilt itself on the same street.

Knockcroghery is a one-street village on the N61, the road that runs from Roscommon town down to Athlone. Three hundred and eighty-eight people at the last count. You could drive through it in twenty seconds and miss the whole story, which would be a mistake, because the story here is one of the better ones in the midlands.

For the best part of three centuries this village made clay tobacco pipes - the short-stemmed dúidíns that were smoked at wakes, then broken and laid on the grave. A Scotsman named Buckley brought the craft in the 1700s; local families took it up until eight kilns and around a hundred people were turning out pipes for export to America and Australia. Then on 21 June 1921, during the War of Independence, the Black and Tans burned the village to the ground. The trade was already fading against the cigarette, and the fire finished it. Almost every building on the street is the rebuild that followed, which is why a Roscommon village looks like it was put up in a single decade.

The name itself is a hanging story. It was the Creagan - the stony hill - until the 1650s, when Cromwell's man Sir Charles Coote took Galey Castle and the O'Kelly clan who held it were marched to the hill at the north end of the village and hanged. After that it was Cnoc an Chrochaire, the Hill of the Hangman, anglicised to Knockcroghery. Hangman's Hill is still there, opposite the post office, if you want to stand on it.

Come for the Claypipe Centre, a pint in Murray's where Roscommon's two All-Ireland cups once sat in the window, and the walk out to Lough Ree at Galey Bay. It is a small place that knows exactly what it is, and does not pretend to be Athlone.

Population

~388 (2022)

Pubs

1and counting

Walk score

One street on the N61 between Roscommon and Athlone

Founded

Clay-pipe village on the old Creagan; burned by the Black and Tans 21 June 1921 and rebuilt

Coords

53.7236° N, 7.9686° W

01 / 08

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 trade

Clay tobacco pipes - the dúidíns - made here for nearly 300 years.

Started by a Scotsman called Buckley in the 18th century, the trade grew until eight kilns employed around a hundred people and pipes shipped to America and Australia. The Claypipe Visitor Centre on Main Street still makes them by hand. It is the reason the village has a name beyond the map.

Stories & lore → 02 The burning

Burned by the Black and Tans on 21 June 1921.

Four lorryloads of Tans, RIC and Auxiliaries put the village to the torch, probably as reprisal. The pipe trade never recovered. Almost everything you see on the street is the 1920s rebuild on the old footprint.

Stories & lore → 03 The lough

Lough Ree at Galey Bay, a mile west of the street.

The water is the older reason this place existed. Galey Castle, an O'Kelly tower house, sits on the bay; the deserted medieval town of Rindoon is on the next peninsula south. Boats, fishing, and a small camping park at the shore.

Walks & outings →

02 / 08

The pubs.

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

Murray's Bar (J.S. Murray's)

The pub, the history, and the football

Village pub, Main Street

The pub in the village, in the Murray family since 1916. This is where the Sam Maguire cups sat in the window after the 1943 and 1944 All-Irelands, and where Jimmy Murray's signed final ball hung from the ceiling. It survived a fire in 1990 - the ball was famously rescued first. A proper rural Roscommon bar with the county's football history baked into the walls. If you stop in Knockcroghery, you stop here.

03 / 08

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
Galey Bay Caravan & Camping Park	Lakeshore camping & caravan park, Galey Bay	A small family-run park on the shore of Lough Ree, a couple of minutes west of the village - around 27 pitches, a slipway, a play area and basic facilities. Open roughly mid-April to the end of October. The right base if you have a tent, a campervan or a boat and want the water rather than a hotel. For a bed indoors you are looking at Roscommon town, about 10 km north.

04 / 08

Stories & lore.

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

Dúidíns of Knockcroghery

The clay pipes

The pipe trade arrived in the 1700s with a trained Scottish pipemaker named Buckley and grew into the thing the village ran on. At its height eight kilns employed around a hundred people; when the local clay ran short they imported it from England and Wales, and the finished dúidíns - short clay bowls with long stems - shipped as far as America and Australia. They were a wake-and-funeral object: smoked once at the removal, then broken and laid on the grave. Some were stamped with surnames, some with slogans. The Claypipe Visitor Centre on Main Street, run by Ethel Kelly and her daughter Sarah, still makes them by hand on the site of the trade, by the same methods. It is open most weekdays and is free to look around.

21 June 1921

The night the village burned

During the War of Independence, four lorryloads of Black and Tans, RIC men and Auxiliaries came through Knockcroghery and set it alight - most likely a reprisal for an ambush in the district. Homes, businesses and the remains of the pipe trade went up. Cigarettes had already been eating into the dúidín for years; the fire ended what was left. The village you walk today is the 1920s reconstruction, built back on its own street. The centenary in 2021 was marked with a commemorative pipe.

Sam Maguire, 1943 and 1944

Jimmy Murray and the football in the window

Murray's Bar has been in the family since 1916. Jimmy Murray captained Roscommon to back-to-back All-Ireland football titles in 1943 and 1944 - the only man to lift Sam Maguire for the county - and the cups sat in the pub window for the village to see. He kept the 1943 final ball, signed by the team, hanging from the ceiling on a piece of string. When the lounge caught fire in 1990 a fireman is said to have shouted from inside that he had the ball before the flames were even out, such was its fame. A limestone statue of Jimmy was unveiled on the village green in late 2024.

An O'Kelly tower house, c. 1340

Galey Castle and the first Fleadh

On the shore of Galey Bay, a mile or so west of the street, stand the ivy-covered remains of Galey Castle - a tower house raised around 1340 by William Buí O'Kelly, chieftain of the south Roscommon O'Kellys. Tradition has it that at Christmas 1351 O'Kelly invited every poet, brehon, bard, harper and jester in the country to Galey, a gathering remembered as the first Fleadh in Ireland. Cromwell's forces under Coote besieged it in the 1650s; the defenders were hanged, and the village got its name from the deed.

05 / 08

Things to do outside.

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

The village and Hangman's Hill There is not much street, so this is short: the Claypipe Centre on Main Street, Murray's and the Jimmy Murray statue on the green, and Hangman's Hill at the north end opposite the post office - the stepped rise where the O'Kelly clan were hanged in the 1650s and where the village got its name. Read the plaques and you have the whole village in half an hour.

1.5 km loopdistance

30 minutestime

Galey Bay and the castle Head west toward the lough at Galey Bay, where the O'Kelly tower house stands ruined and ivy-grown on the shore. This is Lough Ree proper - the largest lough on the Shannon - and the small Galey Bay camping park sits on the water with a slipway. Quiet, low-key, the kind of shoreline you get to yourself outside July and August.

3 km returndistance

1 hourtime

Rindoon (Rinn Dúin) medieval town Not in Knockcroghery but a short drive south near Lecarrow: a deserted 13th-century walled town on a Lough Ree peninsula, with a castle, church, windmill and a rare surviving town wall. The Castle Loop is about 3 km, graded easy, starting from St John's. Worth checking ahead - the looped trail has been closed at times for works. One of the strangest, most complete medieval sites in the country when it is open.

3 km Castle Loopdistance

1.5 hourstime

06 / 08

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The lough shore comes back to life, the camping park reopens in mid-April, and the village is quiet. A good time for the walks before midges and crowds.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Peak for Galey Bay and Portrun, the lakeside spots filling with boats and day-trippers. The Claypipe Centre is reliably open. Warmest and busiest, which here still means quiet by most standards.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Lough Ree light is at its best and the camping park stays open to the end of October. The pub and the centre keep going. Probably the nicest balance of weather and emptiness.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

The camping park is shut and the lough shore is bleak. The village, the pub and Hangman's Hill are still there, and the Claypipe Centre keeps weekday hours, but there is little reason to make a special trip in the wet.

◐ Mind yourself

07 / 08

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 town

Knockcroghery is one street and 388 people. There is the pub, the Claypipe Centre, a shop or two and the green. That is the village, and it is enough for an afternoon - but do not arrive expecting Athlone or even Roscommon town.

Driving straight through on the N61

The whole point of the place is invisible at 80 km/h. Pull in, walk the street, look at the Claypipe Centre and Hangman's Hill, and you understand a small Irish village better than a dozen bigger ones.

Counting on the Rindoon loop being open

The Rinn Dúin medieval site near Lecarrow is the standout walk in the area, but the looped trail has closed for works at times. Check before you drive out, or you will be looking at it over a locked gate.

Getting there.

By car

Knockcroghery sits on the N61 between Roscommon town and Athlone - about 12 km south of Roscommon, 20 km north of Athlone. From Dublin it is roughly 2 hours via the M6 to Athlone then north on the N61. The village is a single signposted street; you cannot miss it.

By bus

Bus Éireann route 440 (Westport to Athlone) passes through the village. Athlone, 20 km south, has far more frequent connections to Dublin and Galway if you are relying on public transport.

By train

No station in the village - the old Knockcroghery halt closed in 1963. The nearest is Roscommon station, about 10 km north, on the Dublin Heuston to Westport line, with onward connections at Athlone.