On 4 November 1920 a column of Black and Tans and Auxiliaries – around a hundred of them – drove into Ballinalee to burn it in reprisal, and left without managing to. Seán Mac Eoin, the local blacksmith, had positioned the North Longford Flying Column around the village and held it. It was the only time during the War of Independence that the IRA successfully defended a town against Crown forces, and it’s the reason this village of a few hundred people is worth a detour.
The house Mac Eoin ran the defence from, Rose Cottage on the main street, was restored and opened to the public in 2023 as a War of Independence centre with a small café. It’s the one thing to do here – everything else is a pleasant way to fill the hour around it.
Rose Cottage
The cottage tells the story of the battle and of Mac Eoin, the blacksmith who went on to a career in national politics. It sits on Longford’s Rebel Trail, a heritage route the county put together linking sites from the 1798 Rebellion through the War of Independence – Ballinamuck and Granard among them. It was a community-driven project, built for €245,374 with most of the money coming from the Town and Village Renewal Scheme, and the Taoiseach of the day, Leo Varadkar, did the official opening in November 2023.
One honest caveat: it’s run by the community, and published opening hours are thin on the ground. Ring ahead or check the council’s Rose Cottage page before you build a day around it, particularly off-season – turning up to a locked door is a real possibility. The café and exhibition are the draw; don’t expect a large visitor centre.
The forest trail and the lakes
The Ballinalee Forest Trail is a 1.1 km loop through mixed woodland, mostly flat and billed by the county as suitable for all abilities, with parking at the entrance and dogs welcome on a lead. It’s a 20-minute leg-stretch rather than a destination – fine before or after the café, not worth a journey on its own.
South of the village, Currygrane Lough and Gurteen Lough give you open water and quiet banks. Surveys have flagged possible crannóg sites – prehistoric lake dwellings – on Currygrane, and both lakes hold fish and draw wintering wildfowl. The River Camlin, a Shannon tributary, runs through the village with gentle banks for a short riverside walk; anglers on the lakes or the river need a National Fisheries Licence from Inland Fisheries Ireland.
Just outside the village are the remains of Old Clonbroney, a monastic site traditionally tied to St Patrick and reputed to have held one of Ireland’s earliest convents, founded around 440 AD. There isn’t much to see – stone fragments in quiet ground – but it’s a short walk and a long history.
Getting there
Ballinalee sits on the Granard–Longford road, about 12 km by road from Longford town. Donnelly’s Pioneer Bus Service runs route 865 between Granard and Longford via the village three times each way, Monday to Saturday, with no Sunday service. The nearest train is Longford station on the Dublin–Sligo line, roughly 12 km away. There’s free parking by Rose Cottage and at the forest-trail entrance.
Within a short drive: Granard and its Norman motte, the 1798 battlefield at Ballinamuck, and the preserved Iron Age bog road at Corlea Trackway near Keenagh.
If you can, come around the start of November, when the village marks the anniversary of the battle – it’s the one time of year the history here is loud rather than quiet.