Things to Do in County Westmeath

More about County Westmeath

Where to base yourself

Mullingar is the county town, set between Lough Owel and Lough Ennell where the Royal Canal Greenway meets the Old Rail Trail – the best base if lakes and cycling are the plan. Athlone is the choice for the Shannon and anchors the western end of the greenway. In the north of the county, Castlepollard is a Georgian market town built around a triangular green and a handy base for Tullynally and the lakes. Glasson, an estate village 10 km north of Athlone on the shores of Lough Ree, has a parkland golf course that opened in 1993 and a few lakeside restaurants.

Athlone Castle is closed until autumn 2026

Athlone Castle – the stone keep built for King John in 1210, and the museum on the great 1691 Shannon siege – is closed for redevelopment and expected to reopen in autumn 2026. Athlone is still worth the stop for Sean’s Bar, the river and the greenway, but don’t plan a day around the castle until it reopens. Sean’s Bar dates itself to around AD 900, with a glass-fronted section of wattle-and-wicker wall, dug out during 1970s renovations, left on display. Custume Barracks has stood on the Shannon’s east bank since the 1690s, still a working Defence Forces base named for the sergeant killed defending the bridge in 1691.

Houses, a distillery and the hill of Uisneach

Belvedere is a Georgian villa on Lough Ennell, ringed by 18th-century follies; the largest, the Jealous Wall, is Ireland’s largest folly, a sham ruin built to block the view of the earl’s brother’s house next door. The house interior is closed for conservation, so tours are outdoors only: adults €9, seniors and students €6, under-18s free with a paying adult.

Licensed in 1757, Kilbeggan is the oldest working whiskey distillery on the island, home to the world’s oldest working pot still. Tours from €18, open daily 10:00–17:30 March to October and 10:00–15:30 in winter.

Uisneach is the legendary centre of Ireland, with up to twenty counties visible from its 182 m summit on a clear day. Access is by pre-booked guided walk only, over a working farm: tours run Saturday and Sunday at 11:00 year-round, plus Friday sunset tours at 18:00 May to September. Adults €15, students and seniors €12, under-12s free, family €25.

Tullynally is Ireland’s largest inhabited castle, still the Pakenham family home, its Gothic towers above 12 acres of gardens near Castlepollard. Gardens open Thursday–Sunday 09:00–17:00: adult €9, child €4, family €24. Castle tours run May–September, Thursday to Saturday at 11:00, 12:30 and 14:00, adult €17 including the garden.

Greenways, a heritage park and Mullingar

A flat, traffic-free greenway, the Old Rail Trail, runs the 40-odd km between Athlone and Mullingar and joins the Royal Canal Greenway around Mullingar – the easiest way to see the county car-free. Castletown Geoghegan, with its restored railway station, sits about midway; Ballinea and Killucan are canal-side stops on the Royal Canal stretch, the latter with a flight of eight locks.

Dún na Sí sets reconstructed farmsteads, a petting zoo and a traditional music school in 27 acres of woodland trails. The Heritage Park costs adult €11, child €7, family €32, open daily 10:00–17:00 April to September only; the surrounding amenity park is free year-round, and a €2 car park charge covers both.

Twin towers and a green dome mark Mullingar’s Cathedral of Christ the King, free to visit and, when it opened in 1936, the first cathedral in the world dedicated to Christ the King.

Lakes, walks and quiet corners

Lough Ennell is a shallow limestone lake just south of Mullingar, once the source of the biggest brown trout ever taken from an Irish lake, with a swimming beach and boats for hire. It meets the 50-acre Jonathan Swift Park at Lilliput, the townland renamed after Swift, where an adventure centre operates on the water. Lough Lene near Collinstown was the first freshwater lake in Ireland to earn a Blue Flag; divers pulled two Roman-era logboats from the mud here in 1968. Free. Lough Owel, a clear spring-fed lake 4 km north of Mullingar, has a jetty and diving board on its southern shore, with a spur off the Royal Canal Greenway reaching it. Free.

The Westmeath Way is a gentle 33 km waymarked walk from Kilbeggan to Mullingar following the River Brosna, the Lough Ennell shore and the canal towpath. Knockeyon rises to 214 m on the south-eastern shore of Lough Derravaragh, the lake of the Children of Lír, where swans still gather; a well-trodden track climbs through woodland past a medieval chapel’s footings to the third-highest point in the county. At 258 m, Mullaghmeen is Ireland’s lowest county top, wrapped in the largest planted beech forest in the country, with waymarked loops past famine-field walls and a reconstructed Booley hut.

Multyfarnham has kept a friary on the same ground since 1268 – the only Franciscan house in Ireland that can say so – with fourteen life-size Stations of the Cross in the grounds. Ballinahown, population about 75, was named Ireland’s Tidiest Village in 2024 and has a bog-oak carving studio in the old schoolhouse. Even Kinnegad, known to most people only as the M4 services stop, has a 5 km walking loop and a restored raised bog if you pull off.

When to go

Westmeath’s paid attractions run on a spring-to-autumn season and several close outright in winter: Dún na Sí’s heritage park is April–September, Tullynally’s castle tours May–September, and Kilbeggan drops to shorter hours from November. The Uisneach walks are the exception, running weekends year-round. The greenways, the lake swims and the hill walks are free and open whenever you like, which makes May to September the sensible window for a first visit.