Strokestown is nestled among Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands. A tranquil stretch of the midlands, boasting scores of unique cultural experiences native to each location.
Top Things to do in Strokestown and surrounding areas
Complied by Visit Roscommon
1. Strokestown Famine Museum
Our immersive, new National Famine Museum brings compelling stories from the Great Irish Famine powerfully to life for visitor of all ages.
State-of-the-art exhibits and interactive displays draw on local accounts and documents, as well as intriguing objects and national perspectives, to shed light on the darkest chapter in Ireland’s past.
2. Strokestown Park House
Take a guided tour of Strokestown Park’s Palladian mansion – a kind of time capsule that reflects the authentic details of life in the Irish country house in centuries past, for gentry and servants alike!
The atmosphere of faded grandeur in this great Roscommon house, and its original collections of art, curios, and everyday objects, set across grand rooms and servants’ quarters, offer you vivid insights into what life was like for everyone, above and below stairs.
3. Walled Gardens & Woodland Walk
Visit Strokestown Park’s 6-acre walled gardens and its lush mature woodlands to refresh your senses and exercise your imagination!
Wander at a relaxed pace to take in the serenity of rural Roscommon and the rich variety of outdoor spaces, from formal pleasure gardens and the fruit and vegetable gardens to Strokestown Park’s wilder woodlands. Or let children lead the way as you explore our exciting garden and woodland trails. There’s so much to discover across this impressive Estate
4. Strokestown Golf Club
Strokestown Golf Club is one of those hidden jewels you stumble across. A 9-hole course where the higher tee boxes give fabulous views of Sliabh Bán, while the lower holes expose the gently undulating landscape.
Signature holes are the par three over water, always proves tricky. Or the short par 4 with a precisely positioned tree. You’ll know it when you get there.
The warm inviting club house offers superb vantage across the vista towards Sliabh Bán with its South facing viewpoints. Strokestown Golf Club, 2 kms from Strokestown, 90 minutes from Dublin 50 minutes from Ireland West Airport Knock.
5. Rathcroghan Visitor Centre
Rathcroghan is one of the four major Royal Sites of Ireland and is known as a place of burial and ritual gatherings. The legendary leader and Warrior Queen of Connacht, Medb, is said to have had her palace here at Rathcroghan around the turn of the first century.
It is here that epic stories such as the Táin began as oral tradition. The Rathcroghan mound was the focal point for the entire region and the very visual experience from the summit makes this all the more apparent. Adjacent are the mounds of Rathnadarve (Ráth da dTarbh), Rathbeg (An Ráthbeag) and Rathmore (An Ráth Mór). The site today extends over 6.5 square kilometres and encompasses over 240 archaeological sites.
Contained within this are 60 protected national monuments, ranging from natural limestone caves, ancient burial mounds and ringforts, ritual sites, linear earthworks and medieval field systems. Oweynagat (Uaimh na ngat – Cave of the Cats) is also set within the complex. The otherworldly Battle Goddess, The Mórrigan, is said to dwell within this cave; making the cave one of three on the Island allowing movement between this tangible, real world and The Otherworld. This association was later interpreted as The Gates of Hell or Hell’s Mouth.
5. Elphin Windmill
The Elphin Windmill is the only fully restored windmill in the west of Ireland.
It is a round, three stage structure with a thatched revolving roof of organic rye. The sails are positioned into the wind by means of a pole attached to a cartwheel which revolves on a circular grooved track on the ground. The mill was originally used for grinding corn and other grains and now houses a visitor centre where the workings of the windmill are interpreted and demonstrated.
Also on site is an agricultural museum housing a threshing machine, a winnower and other machinery associated with the harvesting of grain.
