Peat shapes nearly everything on this page. Lough Boora Discovery Park is the largest of the six, 2,000 hectares of worked-out Bord na Móna bog now holding lakes, woodland and 24 outdoor sculptures along a 2.8 km loop; it is free and open all year, and the fairy trail keeps younger children moving. Kilcormac sits a few kilometres away on the N52 between Tullamore and Birr, so the village church with its 16th-century oak Pietà pairs easily with the park in one morning. Clara, a mill town on the River Brosna, has the finest raised bog in Ireland on its edge, crossed by a free 1 km timber boardwalk that closes now and again for repairs.
Croghan Hill is the odd one out, east of the rest and rising over the Bog of Allen. The climb is only 1.8 km but steep, ending at 234 m with a view in every direction over very flat country.
The two wettest places want careful timing. The Shannon Callows, out on the county’s western edge between Athlone and Portumna, are hay meadow for a few weeks in summer and under river water for much of the rest of the year, so the breeding waders are a late spring and early summer outing. Sharavogue, on the Little Brosna floodplain, has no visitor centre at all, just edge paths, a single-arch stone bridge and the line of an old railway.
Two thousand hectares of worked-out peat bog remade as lakes, woodland and open-air art, with a free 2.8 km sculpture loop open year-round.
The eroded core of an extinct volcano above the Bog of Allen, climbed by a short, steep 1.8 km loop to a 360° view.
A Quaker mill town on the Brosna whose edge holds Ireland's finest raised bog, crossed free by a 1 km timber boardwalk.
A village on the N52 between Tullamore and Birr, holding a 16th-century oak Pietà that spent 60 years hidden in a bog.
Flood meadow between Athlone and Portumna, under water much of the year and holding one of these islands' largest breeding wader concentrations.
5 of 6 shown — tap a pin for the place.
offaly
Lough Boora Discovery Park is a former Bord na Móna peat bog reworked into 2,000 hectares of lakes, woodland and open-air art. Walk the 2.8 km sculpture loop past 24 installations, count some of its 130-plus bird species, or send the kids down the fairy trail – all free and open year-round.
Croghan, offaly
Rising 234 m above the flat Bog of Allen, Croghan Hill is the eroded core of an extinct volcano, layered with myth, holy wells and an unexcavated Bronze Age mound. A short but steep 1.8 km loop climbs to a 360° view, near where the Iron Age bog body Old Croghan Man was found in 2003.
Clara, offaly
Clara is a midlands town on the River Brosna in County Offaly, built up by Quaker mill-owners and best known today for Clara Bog on its edge. The reserve is the finest raised bog in Ireland and holds more than half of all the uncut raised bog left in northwest Europe, with a free 1km timber boardwalk looping across it. Both the boardwalk and the visitor centre are free, though the boardwalk closes for repairs from time to time.
Kilcormac, offaly
Kilcormac's church holds the Kilcormac Pietà, a 16th-century oak carving parishioners buried in a bog for 60 years to keep it from Cromwell's men. The village sits on the N52 between Tullamore and Birr, a few kilometres from Lough Boora Discovery Park, whose free sculpture trail runs across restored bogland.
River Shannon floodplain, offaly
Sharavogue, offaly
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