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LOUGHGLINN

CO. ROSCOMMON · IE

Loughglinn
Loch Glinn, Co. Roscommon

The Ireland's Hidden Heartlands
STOP 01 / 03

Loch Glinn · Co. Roscommon

A small estate village in west Roscommon built around a ruined Dillon house, a lake, and a song about an ambush.

Loughglinn is a small estate village in west Roscommon, inland and quiet, with no through-traffic to speak of and a lake to the north that most people drive past without noticing. It is named for that lake - Loch Glinn, the lake of the glen. The 2016 census counted 184 people. It has two pubs, two shops, a funeral home, a church, a national school and a GAA club, which in a village this size is a full set.

The Dillons made the place. Theobald Dillon was created first Viscount Dillon in 1622, his brother Lucas settled at Loughglinn, and the family was granted some four thousand seven hundred acres here in 1680. They built Loughglinn House around 1715, a Palladian block in limestone ashlar, and then largely cleared off to live in England at Ditchley Park in Oxfordshire, leaving an agent to run the estate. The house is a roofless ruin now, the lead long gone from the roof, the contents long gone with it.

What kept the house alive longest was not the Dillons but nuns. In 1903 it was bought for the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, who ran a school teaching lace-making and domestic science and set up a creamery. Loughglinn butter and cheese was sold around the world until the operation wound down in the 1960s. The village owes more of its modern shape to the sisters than to the viscounts.

Do not come to Loughglinn for a day out - there is not a day out in it. Come if you are passing on the road between Castlerea and Ballaghaderreen, want a pint in a real rural pub, a look at a genuinely melancholy big-house ruin, and a walk by a lake nobody else is walking by. The Woodlands of Loughglinn, the ballad, is the most famous thing the village produced, and it is about men being shot in the trees. That tells you the register of the place.

Population

184 (2016)

Pubs

2and counting

Walk score

End to end of the village in five minutes; the lake and demesne woods do the rest

Founded

Dillon estate village; Loughglinn House built c. 1715 by the Viscounts Dillon

Coords

53.817° N, 8.55° 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 house

A Palladian Dillon house, now a roofless ruin behind the village.

Loughglinn House was built around 1715 for the Viscounts Dillon, who mostly preferred their English seat at Ditchley Park. Sold to the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary in 1903, sold on to a developer in 2003, and stripped to a shell since. The demesne woods are still there.

Stories & lore → 02 The song

The Woodlands of Loughglinn - a War of Independence ballad.

In April 1921 four IRA men were caught in the woods when the Black and Tans combed the demesne. Two of them, Sean Bergin and Stephen McDermott, were shot. The ballad written about it is still sung. The woods are the same woods.

Stories & lore → 03 The place

Two pubs, two shops, a church, and 184 people on the R325.

Midway between Castlerea and Ballaghaderreen, with a lake to the north that gives the place its name - Loch Glinn, the lake of the glen. A working rural village, not a tourist one. That is the whole appeal.

Walks & outings →

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 village pubs

Local-first, no frills

Two rural pubs in the village centre

Loughglinn has two pubs serving the village - the kind of small rural bars where the trade is regulars and you will be the stranger who gets a nod. They are not destination gastropubs and do not pretend to be. For a wider choice, food, and anything resembling a night out, Castlerea and Ballaghaderreen are each about ten minutes up the R325.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

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

Built c. 1715, gutted by the 21st century

The Dillons and their ruin

The Dillons were Old English - Theobald Dillon was made first Viscount Dillon in 1622, and the family held Loughglinn on a patent of roughly 4,700 acres granted in 1680. Loughglinn House went up around 1715, a Palladian limestone block of two storeys over basement, extended in the 1820s. The catch is the family barely lived in it; they preferred Ditchley Park in Oxfordshire and ran the Roscommon estate through an agent. After the nuns left, a developer bought the house in 2003 and it was vandalised and stripped - roof lead, fittings, everything - so what stands today is a gaunt roofless shell in the demesne woods. The Irish Aesthete has called it bleak, and that is the right word.

Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, 1903

Loughglinn cheese, made by nuns

When the Dillon connection finally lapsed, the house was bought in 1903 for the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, who turned it into a convent and school. They taught lace-making and domestic science, and - more unusually - ran a working dairy. Loughglinn butter and cheese was exported and had a name well beyond Roscommon, right up until the sisters wound the creamery down in the 1960s. For most of the 20th century the village identity ran through the convent gate, not the estate gate.

An ambush, April 1921

The Woodlands of Loughglinn

On 19 April 1921, during the War of Independence, four IRA men were sheltering in the demesne woods when Black and Tans swept the area. Two of them, Sean Bergin and Stephen McDermott, were shot on the spot. The ballad written afterwards, The Woodlands of Loughglinn, kept the event in local memory and is still sung. If you walk the woods around the ruined house, this is the ground it describes. The village does not let you forget it.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

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

The demesne and the house ruin The old Dillon demesne woods sit behind the village, with the roofless shell of Loughglinn House in among them. This is private land in parts and the ruin itself is unsafe to enter - look, do not climb. The trees are the Woodlands of the song. Quiet, atmospheric, slightly sad, which is the correct mood for the place.

2-3 kmdistance

45 mintime

Around Lough Glinn The lake the village is named for lies just to the north. There is no formal looped trail signposted to tourist standard, so this is a stroll on quiet local roads near the water rather than a marked amenity walk. Wellingtons in winter. You will likely have it to yourself.

Variesdistance

30-60 mintime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The demesne woods leaf up and the lake settles. Best light for photographing the ruin, and the ground underfoot is drier than it will be later.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long evenings, greenest woods, and the easiest time to combine Loughglinn with Castlerea and the wider Hidden Heartlands. Still quiet - this is not a place that fills up.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

The woods turn and the whole place leans into its melancholy. A good month for the walk and the ruin.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days, wet ground around the lake, and not much open. The pub will still pour a pint. Bring boots or do not bother with the demesne.

◐ 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.

Trying to get inside Loughglinn House

It is a stripped, roofless ruin on private ground and it is dangerous. View it from a respectful distance. There is no visitor access, no signage, and no guide - this is not a managed heritage site.

Expecting a tourist village

Loughglinn is 184 people, two pubs and two shops. There are no cafes, no craft shops, no visitor centre. If you want amenities, base yourself in Castlerea or Ballaghaderreen and come here for the ruin, the woods and the quiet.

Getting there.

By car

On the R325 midway between Castlerea (about 7 km / 10 min south) and Ballaghaderreen (about 10 km north-west). Roughly 25 minutes west of Roscommon town on small open country roads. Ballyhaunis and Ballinlough are also close.

By bus

TFI Local Link route 977 (Castlerea - Ballaghaderreen - Sligo) serves Loughglinn, with several daily runs to Castlerea taking around 12 minutes. Beyond that, public transport is sparse - this is car country.

By train

Castlerea railway station, about 10 minutes south, is on the Dublin Heuston to Westport line. It is the nearest train and a useful way in if you are coming without a car.