Ardagh – West Limerick’s Greenway village

Overview

In September 1868, two men digging potatoes in a ring fort just outside Ardagh – Jimmy Quin and Paddy Flanagan – lifted out a hoard of early medieval metalwork, and with it the finest chalice to survive from 8th-century Ireland. That single find is why most people have heard the name. What they do not always know is that the chalice itself is now 200 km away in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin; what Ardagh has is the ground it came out of, and a quiet West Limerick village around it.

Ardagh (Irish: Ardach, ‘high field’) sits at the junction of the R523 and R521, about five kilometres north of Newcastle West. Its draw now is the Limerick Greenway, the traffic-free walking and cycling route that follows the old Limerick–Tralee railway line straight through the village.

History and heritage

The hoard came out of Reerasta rath, a ringfort now protected as a National Monument on the edge of the village – not, as older accounts have it, from beside the railway station. Besides the chalice, an 8th-century piece of filigree and enamel work, the find included a plainer cup and four brooches. All of it went to Dublin, where the chalice remains one of the museum’s headline pieces.

Ardagh’s other claim on the history books is the Fenian rising of 1867. On 5 March that year around forty local Fenians set out to seize the Royal Irish Constabulary barracks in the village. The attempt failed and was quickly put down, but it has not been forgotten: on the 150th anniversary a plaque was unveiled and the raid re-enacted.

A mile north-west, at the Black Hill in Ballylin, stands the largest Iron Age hillfort in Ireland – a 52-acre enclosure, far bigger than anything the village itself lets on. Ardagh carried some weight in medieval times too, a manor that once belonged to the Bishop of Limerick. And a mile from the village, Cahermoyle House was the home of William Smith O’Brien, the Young Ireland leader and MP transported for his part in the 1848 rebellion.

The Limerick Greenway

The Greenway is what brings most visitors now. It runs traffic-free along the bed of the former Limerick–Tralee railway, flat and easy the whole way, and passes right through Ardagh. There are no climbs to speak of and the route is well signposted, which makes it a soft introduction to a day on two wheels or a long walk. Spring and autumn mornings give the best of it: low light, empty path.

The restored Ardagh station house sits on the line as a rest stop, with toilets and picnic tables. The trailhead car park carries the Eircode V42 T590 if you are setting a sat-nav. Check the Limerick Greenway website for the current route map before you set out, as sections close for maintenance from time to time.

What to see and do

The Old Station House

Restored to something like its working character, the old station house is now a simple rest stop on the Greenway – toilets, picnic tables and the original platform, which gives a sense of how the railway once ran village life. It is a good place to break a ride rather than a destination in itself.

Holy wells and the village

A short walk from the main street brings you to St Molua’s Holy Well and St Kieran’s Holy Well, both still tended and still visited. St Molua’s Roman Catholic church serves the parish – this is the village’s own church, despite older write-ups that borrow the ruined St Mel’s Cathedral from the other Ardagh, in County Longford. The local GAA club is St Kierans, drawn from Ardagh, Carrigkerry and the neighbouring townlands.

Nearby

Newcastle West, five kilometres south, has the shops, cafés and the ruins of its own Desmond Castle. Back in the village, Foley’s, Reens and Moore’s are the pubs for a pint after the Greenway.

Practical information

Ardagh is about a 30-minute drive from Limerick city via the N21.

Bring a refillable bottle and a layer against the wind, as the valley floor is open and can be breezy even on a fair day. And come for the Greenway and the story rather than the chalice itself – that has been in Dublin since 1868.