County Roscommon Ireland · Co. Roscommon · Loughglinn Save · Share
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LOUGHGLINN
CO. ROSCOMMON · IE

Loughglinn
Loch Glinn

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Loch Glinn · Co. Roscommon

A small village in west Roscommon with Norman roots.

Loughglinn is a small village in west Roscommon, quiet and inland, without the water or the traffic. What it has is history—the Dillon family, Anglo-Norman settlers who built a castle here and held the land for centuries. The castle is gone now, or what remains is too quiet to call itself a ruin.

The village sits on a glen, hence the name—Loch Glinn, the lough of the glen—though the lough itself is small and easily missed. It is the sort of place where the history sits heavier than the present, and perhaps that is enough.

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Stories & lore.

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

Norman family, Irish roots

The Dillons

The Dillon family were Anglo-Norman settlers who became Irish. They held Loughglinn for generations and built a castle to keep it. Over centuries they accumulated land, titles, and the complicated identity of settlers who stopped being settlers and became instead just people. The castle site is still here, though time has done what conquest could not.

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Getting there.

By car

About 25 minutes west of Roscommon town. West Roscommon is sparsely roaded. Small roads, open country.