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ROOSKY

CO. ROSCOMMON · IE

Roosky
Rúscaigh, Co. Roscommon

The Ireland's Hidden Heartlands
STOP 03 / 04

Rúscaigh · Co. Roscommon

A Shannon lock village on the Roscommon-Leitrim line - Albert Reynolds's home place, and a stop on the river where the boats wait their turn.

Roosky sits on the River Shannon where Roscommon, Leitrim and Longford come to a point, a small village split by the river and held together by a five-arch stone bridge built in 1845. The name comes from Rúscaigh, which means swamp or bog, and the land around bears it out - the Shannon spreads wide here between Lough Bofin to the north and Lough Forbes to the south, and the village is the dry crossing in the middle of all that water.

The river is the whole point. The navigation channel was cut in the 1760s and the lock, weir and bridge went in during the 1840s, and the lock is still working - it lifts hire cruisers and the odd serious sailor up and down the Shannon through the summer. The marina fills, the harbour wall has boats two deep on a July weekend, and the lock-keeper does the unglamorous work of moving water while the visitors watch from the bridge. The village itself is secondary to the traffic on the river, and it knows it.

Don't come expecting a town. Roosky is a bridge, a lock, a marina, a couple of pubs, a shop and a filling station, with the N4 humming past on the Leitrim bank. It had a meat plant once - a pork-processing works that employed hundreds from three counties until a fire took it in 2002 and the company decided not to rebuild - and the Shannon Key West Hotel that closed in 2011. What is left is the river, the fishing, and the slow rhythm of a place that empties in winter and fills in summer.

If you are coming off the N4, come for the angling or come for the boats. The Shannon and the loughs are full of coarse fish - roach, perch, bream - and the river is the reason the village exists at all. The Rooskey Heritage Festival in July is the one week the place puts on a show. The rest of the year it is quiet, which is either the point or the problem depending on what you came for.

Population

~787 (2022)

Pubs

2and counting

Walk score

Bridge to lock to marina in ten minutes

Founded

Shannon crossing; navigation channel cut in the 1760s, lock and five-arch bridge built in the 1840s

Coords

53.8333° N, 7.9167° 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 river

A working lock and marina on the navigable Shannon, between Lough Bofin and Lough Forbes.

The navigation channel was cut in the 1760s and the present lock, weir and five-arch bridge date from the 1840s. The lock still lifts cruisers up and down the river all summer. The marina fills with hire boats and the harbour is the busiest thing in the village.

Stories & lore → 02 The border

Three counties meet here - Roscommon, Leitrim and Longford.

The village is split by the Shannon. The Roscommon side and the Leitrim side share a bridge and not much else; the Leitrim side was once called Georgia. The N4 Dublin-Sligo road runs past on the Leitrim bank, which is why most people see Roosky at speed and keep going.

Walks & outings → 03 The Taoiseach

Albert Reynolds was born here in 1932.

Ireland's ninth Taoiseach grew up in Roosky and clerked at Dromod railway station up the road before he made his money in ballrooms and pet food and went into politics. The village has never quite let you forget it, and fair enough.

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 Weir Lodge

Riverside local, family-run

Pub, on the Leitrim side near the weir

The pub by the water, named for the weir it sits beside. A family business and the social centre of the village such as it is - the place the boat crowd and the locals both end up. Music in summer when the marina is full. If you tie up at Roosky for the night, this is where you go.

Reynolds Bar

Old-school village local

Traditional bar, Leitrim side

A plain village bar of the kind that does not need a refit to know what it is. Pint, the racing, and whoever is in. Quiet most of the year, busier when the festival or the fishing brings people through.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

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

Two and a half centuries of moving water

The lock, the weir and the bridge

The Shannon is Ireland's longest river and navigable for most of its length, which is only true because of works like the ones at Roosky. The navigation channel was cut in the 1760s to let boats past the shallows; the present lock, the weir that holds the level, and the five-arch masonry bridge all date from the 1840s. The lock is not a museum piece - it works, every summer, lifting hire cruisers between Lough Bofin and Lough Forbes. Stand on the bridge and watch a boat go through and you see the whole logic of the inland waterway: the gates close, the water does the work, and time runs at the speed of the river rather than the road.

Taoiseach, 1992-1994

Albert Reynolds's village

Albert Reynolds, the ninth Taoiseach of Ireland and one of the architects of the Northern Ireland peace process, was born in Roosky in 1932. As a young man he clerked for CIE at Dromod railway station three kilometres up the road, before he made his name and money running dancehalls across the midlands in the showband years and then C and D Foods. He went into Fianna Fail politics, became Taoiseach in 1992, and signed the Downing Street Declaration with John Major in 1993. He died in 2014. A man can come from a village this small and end up shaking hands in Downing Street, and Roosky is entitled to mention it.

Where three counties meet

The border and the 1798 fight

Roosky has always been a frontier of sorts - the Shannon here is the line between Roscommon and Leitrim, with Longford a stone's throw south, so three counties meet at the bridge. The Leitrim side of the village was once a separate settlement called Georgia. In 1798 local rebels defeated a detachment of General Lake's army on the shores of Lough Bofin during the rebellion, and the same bridge saw fighting again in 1922 during the Civil War. A small place on a big river tends to end up on the route of whoever is marching.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

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

Bridge, lock and marina loop The village in miniature. From the bridge down to the lock and the weir, along the harbour wall past the moored cruisers, and back. Time it for when a boat is locking through and you will stand longer than you meant to. Flat, easy, and the only walk that needs no car.

1.5 kmdistance

30 minutestime

Riverside and lough paths Tree-lined paths run along the Shannon banks out toward Lough Bofin and Lough Forbes. Peaceful rather than dramatic - this is bog and slow water, not mountain country. Good for an angler scouting a swim or anyone who wants the river to themselves. Wet underfoot after rain, which is most of the time.

Variesdistance

1 hour plustime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The river wakes up, the first cruisers come through the lock, and the angling season hits its stride before the summer crowds. Quiet and green.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

The reason to come. The marina fills, the lock is busy, the pubs have music, and the Rooskey Heritage Festival lands in July with live music and markets. The one time the village is properly alive.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

The boats thin out and the village quietens fast once the season ends. Still good for fishing and for having the riverside paths to yourself, but expect things to be shutting down around you.

◐ Mind yourself

Winter

Nov-Feb

Roosky in winter is a bridge, a lock and not much open. The Shannon is high and grey, the marina is empty, and unless you are an angler who likes solitude there is little reason to stop.

◐ 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.

The N4 fly-by

The Dublin-Sligo road runs right past Roosky on the Leitrim bank, and almost everyone takes it at speed without realising there is a working Shannon lock and marina fifty metres off the carriageway. If you are passing, pull in, walk to the bridge, watch a boat lock through. Five minutes, and then drive on.

Expecting a town

Roosky is a village of under 800 people split across a river. Two pubs, a shop, a filling station and a marina is the whole offer. It is a stop on the Shannon, not a destination in itself - measure your expectations to the size of the place and it delivers exactly what it promises.

Looking for the Shannon Key West Hotel

It closed in 2011 and is not coming back, and the big meat plant burned in 2002 and was never rebuilt. Roosky has lost a couple of its bigger landmarks. The river, the lock and the fishing are what remain, and they are the better story anyway.

Getting there.

By car

Roosky is on the N4 Dublin-Sligo road, about eight miles (13 km) north-west of Longford town and roughly 30 minutes south-east of Carrick-on-Shannon. The bridge and the lock are signposted off the main road on the Leitrim bank.

By bus

Bus Éireann route 22 (Dublin-Sligo) runs along the N4 and stops at Roosky on request. Local Link covers the rural routes around south Leitrim and north Roscommon.

By train

The nearest station is Dromod, three kilometres north on the Leitrim side, on the Dublin Connolly to Sligo line. Albert Reynolds clerked there as a young man. Frequent enough services to Dublin and Sligo; from the station it is a short hop down to the river.