Old Rail Trail Greenway - 4 Things to Know Before Visiting

The Hill of Uisneach is an ancient ceremonial site containing a series of monuments in Rathconrath, County Westmeath. It consists of numerous monuments and earthworks—prehistoric and medieval—including a probable megalithic tomb, burial mounds, enclosures, standing stones, holy wells and a medieval road. Uisneach is near the geographical centre of Ireland, and in Irish mythology it is deemed to be the symbolic and sacred centre of the island.

Durrow is the site of one of the earliest and most important monastery founded by St Columcille about 550. Largely undisturbed, the site is an early medieval monastic complex of ecclesiastical and secular monuments, visible and sub-surface. The extant monuments at the site include a large ecclesiastical enclosure, five Early Christian grave slabs, a fine mid-ninth century high cross and so more.

Clara Bog is the finest remaining example of a raised bog in Ireland today. Raised bogs once covered 310,000 hectares in Ireland but today just 7% remains intact. This forms over 50% of the remaining area of uncut raised bog in North West Europe. The nature reserve is home to many protected wildlife species. The installation of a 1km-looped timber boardwalk with interpretive panels at Clara Bog has provided for local recreation and tourism.

A beautiful lake near the town of Mullingar, County Westmeath, Ireland. The lake is part of the Lough Ennell Special Protection Area. It is 6.5 km long by 2 km wide, with an area of about 12 km2. Lough Ennell has a large area of shallow water with nearly two-thirds of its area being less than 25 feet (8 m) and almost half of it being under 10 ft deep. The lake produced Ireland's largest ever lake brown trout at 26 lbs.

The Jealous Wall was built c. 1760 as a result of a quarrel between Robert Rochfort and another brother George, the owner of nearby Rochfort House , now, alas a melancholy ruin. The Wall was built between the two houses as an artificial ruin of an abbey so as to exclude from Robert’s view the sight of his brother’s residence of which he was jealous.

Ballycowan Castle is a castle located 4 km west of Tullamore, Co. Offaly. It was built in 1589 as a fortified house by Thomas Morres.The castle was built on the previous site of the O’Molloy castle or tower house called Baile-mhic-Abhainn which was destroyed by a fire in 1557.