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RAHARA

CO. ROSCOMMON · IE

Rahara
Ráth Ara, Co. Roscommon

The Ireland's Hidden Heartlands
STOP 06 / 06

Ráth Ara · Co. Roscommon

Ráth Ara, the fort of the charioteer - a medieval church ruin, a famous disappearing lake, and a scatter of farms in south Roscommon.

Rahara is not a village so much as a parish with a name - Ráth Ara, the fort of the charioteer - spread across tillage and bog in south Roscommon, off the R362 between Athlone and Athleague. There is no main street to photograph. There is a national school, a Catholic church, a medieval ruin, and a lake that comes and goes. That is the parish, and it is enough to make the place worth a slow hour if you are the kind of traveller who likes the country empty.

The thing to find is the old church. It sits on a gentle east-facing slope about a kilometre from the northwest corner of Lough Funshinagh, and it has been a place of worship since before 1306, when it was taxed as Rathfard in the diocese of Elphin. The walls are roofless now but the masonry is good - clean quoins, a carved stone head looking out from the northwest corner, and the remains of a Romanesque window from the church's transitional phase. There was a Sheela-na-gig here too; it has been taken into Roscommon County Museum in the town for safekeeping. The graveyard around it is still in use, and a local committee with the county council has been conserving what is left.

Lough Funshinagh is the other reason to slow down. It is a turlough - a seasonal lake in karst limestone, west of the Shannon - and it behaves like nothing a visitor expects a lake to do. It can drain through the rock in as little as two days and vanish entirely two or three times a decade, sometimes leaving thousands of dead fish behind. In recent years the opposite has been the problem: the water will not leave, and the flooding has crept toward homes and the Rahara-to-Curraghboy road, becoming one of the longest-running planning rows in the county. It is a Special Area of Conservation, good for wintering wildfowl. Approach it as a thing to watch and read, not a thing to swim in.

Beyond that, be honest with yourself about scale. Rahara has no pub of its own and no shop to speak of - for a pint you drive the few minutes to Curraghboy or down toward Knockcroghery, where Murray's Bar (a famous GAA pub) has been run for a century by a family who came originally from Rahara. The football is St Brigid's, the big south-Roscommon club at Kiltoom and Cam, with a handball complex over at Curraghboy. Come here for the ruin, the strange lake, and the particular quiet of a parish that the map barely marks.

Population

Rural parish, a few hundred people; Rahara National School had 34 pupils in 2011

Walk score

The church ruin and the turlough shore, on foot from a parked car

Founded

Medieval parish church recorded as Rathfard in the Elphin taxation of 1306

Coords

53.5211° N, 8.1400° W

01 / 06

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

Ráth Ara - the fort of the charioteer.

A townland and civil parish on the R362 between Athlone and Athleague, 3 km north of Curraghboy. The parish church turns up in the ecclesiastical taxation of Elphin in 1306 as Rathfard, so people have been worshipping on this slope for at least seven hundred years.

Stories & lore → 02 The lake

Lough Funshinagh, the lake that disappears.

A turlough partly in Rahara townland - a seasonal karst lake that can empty in two days and dries out entirely every few years. It is a Special Area of Conservation and, lately, the centre of a long flooding crisis that has threatened homes around Rahara and Curraghboy.

Walks & outings → 03 The ruin

A medieval church with a carved head and a Sheela-na-gig.

The roofless church on the slope above the turlough has good quoins, a carved head at the northwest angle, and a transitional Romanesque window. Its Sheela-na-gig is now in Roscommon County Museum. The graveyard committee and the county council have been conserving the stones.

Stories & lore →

02 / 06

Stories & lore.

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

Rathfard, taxed in the diocese of Elphin

The church on the slope, since 1306

The medieval parish church of Rahara stands roofless on an east-facing rise about 1.2 km from the northwest corner of Lough Funshinagh. It appears in the ecclesiastical taxation of Elphin in 1306 under the name Rathfard, which puts a working church on this ground at least seven centuries back. What survives is a rectangular structure with good cut quoins, a carved human head set at the northwest angle, and the remains of a Romanesque window thought to belong to a transitional phase of the building. The graveyard is still in use. Roscommon County Council and the local cemetery committee have carried out conservation work on the ruin with Heritage Council and Community Monuments Fund support, which is why the walls are still standing for you to read.

Now in Roscommon County Museum

The Sheela-na-gig of Rahara

Among the carved stones associated with the old church was a Sheela-na-gig - one of the medieval grotesque female figures found on Irish churches and castles, their meaning still argued over by people who study them. Rather than leave it on an exposed ruin, it was taken into the collection of Roscommon County Museum in the county town, where it can be seen. It is the kind of object that tells you a small rural church here was part of the same medieval world as the grander sites - the same masons, the same odd carved language in the stone.

A turlough, and a flooding crisis

Lough Funshinagh, the disappearing lake

Partly within Rahara townland lies Lough Funshinagh, one of Ireland's larger turloughs - a seasonal lake fed and drained through the limestone rather than by rivers. It has been called the lake that disappears, because in dry conditions it can empty through the rock in a couple of days and dry out completely two or three times in a decade. In the last several years the water has done the reverse and refused to drain, flooding farmland and creeping toward homes around Rahara, Ballagh and Curraghboy and threatening the road between them. It is a Special Area of Conservation important for wintering wildfowl, and the long, contested effort to pipe the overflow safely away has been one of south Roscommon's defining local stories.

03 / 06

Things to do outside.

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

Rahara medieval church & graveyard Park considerately at the graveyard and walk in to the roofless church on the slope. Look for the carved head at the northwest angle and the Romanesque window. The Sheela-na-gig itself is gone to the county museum, but the stones, the quoins and the old burials reward a slow look. Boots after rain; this is a working country graveyard, not a manicured site.

Short, from the roadsidedistance

30-45 minutestime

Lough Funshinagh shore The turlough is a Special Area of Conservation and its edge moves dramatically with the season, so there is no fixed waymarked loop. Pull in where it is safe, keep to public road and verge, and treat it as a place to watch wildfowl and read the strange geology rather than to ramble through. In flood years parts of the local roads have been underwater - check before you go, and do not drive into standing water.

Varies with the waterdistance

Allow an hourtime

04 / 06

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Drier ground for the church and graveyard, lengthening light, the turlough often still holding water with birds on it. The best window for a quiet visit.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long evenings and the easiest driving on the minor roads. The lake may be low or empty depending on the year, which is its own spectacle.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Wildfowl returning to Lough Funshinagh, soft light on the old stones. Bring boots; the graveyard slope gets greasy.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days and the season when the turlough flooding is at its worst - local roads around Rahara and Curraghboy have gone under in recent winters. Check conditions and do not attempt flooded roads.

◐ Mind yourself

05 / 06

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 a village centre

There isn't one in the usual sense. Rahara is a parish and a townland - a school, a church, a ruin and farms. Come for those, not for a main street, a square or a row of shops.

A pint in Rahara itself

There is no pub in the townland. Drive the few minutes to Curraghboy, or down toward Knockcroghery where Murray's Bar - long run by a family with Rahara roots - is one of the best-known GAA pubs in the country.

Swimming or boating on Lough Funshinagh

It is a protected turlough with a wildly unpredictable water level and a serious flooding problem, not a leisure lake. Watch the birds from the verge and leave it at that.

Getting there.

By car

Rahara sits on the R362 between Athlone and Athleague, about 3 km north of Curraghboy and roughly 12-15 km northwest of Athlone. From the M6 take the Athlone exits and head north on the R362; the church and graveyard are signposted locally off the minor roads. Open, sparsely settled country - mind the lake-flooded sections in wet winters.

By bus

There is no village bus service. Local Link Roscommon runs rural routes in the wider south-Roscommon area; Athlone is the nearest town for Bus Éireann intercity connections. A car is effectively required.

By train

The nearest station is Athlone, on the Dublin Heuston to Galway/Westport lines, roughly a 20-minute drive south. You will need a car from there.