A church of the tomb
Kiltoom takes its name from the Irish Cill Tuama, ‘church of the tomb’ – a reference to an ancient burial mound that marked the earliest place of worship here, on the southwestern shore of Lough Ree northwest of Athlone. Beside the mound is a holy well, Tobar Pádraig, Patrick’s Well. This is a small working parish rather than a visitor attraction, and it is honest to say you would not cross the county for it. But if you are on the N61 between Athlone and Roscommon, or staying at Hodson Bay, it makes a quiet twenty-minute stop.
The church
The parish church, the Church of the Risen Christ at Ballybay, was built on its present site in the 1830s and renovated in 1974, when it took its current dedication. Its most striking feature is recent: a central stained-glass window of the Resurrection, installed in the sacristy in 2014 and best seen when morning or late-afternoon light comes through the glass. There is no charge to step inside, but like most rural churches it is generally open around Mass times, so check the parish site (kiltoomandcam.com) if you want to be sure of the door being open. The medieval rectory here was served by Cluniac monks from Athlone in the 15th century, and the ruined St Paul’s Church of Ireland church at nearby Cornaseer, built around 1850, is another stop for anyone tracing the parish’s older stonework.
The lake and the big houses
Kiltoom’s shoreline gives gentle, unstructured walking along Lough Ree, with herons, grebes and wintering wildfowl in the reed beds. The land was long divided among estates: Hodson Bay, once home to the Hodson family, is now a lakeside hotel, while the demesnes of the Grove, New Park and Rockhill are still visible from the shore. Boats and kayaks launch from Athlone a few minutes south, so a stroll here pairs easily with a paddle.
A vanished railway, a full record
Kiltoom once had its own station on the Dublin to Westport line, opened in 1860 and closed in 1963. The tracks are long gone, but the parish left a fuller paper record than most small places: it is the subject of a detailed local study, Roscommon before the Famine: the parishes of Kiltoom and Cam, 1749–1845 by Willie Gacquin (Irish Academic Press, 1996), held in Roscommon County Library. The Catholic parishes of Kiltoom and Cam were united in the second half of the 18th century.
Getting there
Kiltoom is on the N61 between Athlone and Roscommon town, about five miles (8 km) northwest of Athlone. Athlone has the nearest railway station, with InterCity trains to Dublin, Galway and Westport, and Bus Éireann routes 461 (Sligo–Roscommon–Athlone) and 440 stop at the Kiltoom crossroads. There is free parking at the Hodson Bay Hotel and a small lay-by opposite the church, but no shops, toilets or cafés at the crossroads itself, so stock up in Athlone.
Nearby
- Boyle Abbey – Cistercian ruins a drive to the northwest.
- Roscommon Castle – a 13th-century Norman shell in the county town.
- Lough Key Forest Park – trails, a lake and a treetop walk near Boyle.
If you want a base rather than a quick stop, the Hodson Bay Hotel puts you right on the lake, with Athlone’s restaurants ten minutes down the road.