Milltownpass wired its own streets for electric light in the early 20th century, decades before the national Rural Electrification Scheme reached this corner of Westmeath. The village clubbed together, formed a company and built a turbine generator on the Milltown River; the whole scheme cost £700, with local electricians doing the wiring and a resident engineer overseeing the work. It made Milltownpass one of the first villages in Ireland to run on its own power, and it is still a point of local pride.
The name and the river
The name goes back to an older industry. Bealach Bhaile an Mhuilinn means ‘way of the town of the mill’, and an 1812 map shows a large mill pond dominating the south side of the main road. The Milltown River rises at the north end of the village and runs south towards the Offaly border, where it splits to form the Monagh River. The mills themselves are long gone, but the water that once turned them is still the thread the village is built around.
The Bog & Woodland Trail
If you have time for one thing in Milltownpass, make it the Bog & Woodland Trail, about a kilometre north-east of the village. It is a 1.2 km path, flat, gravelled and step-free – fine for a buggy, a child’s bike or a wheelchair over even ground – and you can stretch it to around 3 km on optional side paths. The route runs along the edge of Milltownpass Bog, a raised bog protected as a Natural Heritage Area (NHA 002323), the kind of ground that grows sphagnum moss, heather, cotton-grass, bog rosemary and the carnivorous sundew, and supports wetland birds.
Wooden sculptures along the way tell the story of what lives on the peatland, and there are bat and bird nesting boxes and benches for stopping. It is a short, gentle outing rather than a day’s walk – half an hour at an easy pace – so treat it as a stretch of the legs, not a hike. Weekday mornings are quietest, and best for photography.
Village life
Grennan’s is the village pub and the traditional social hub. St Joseph’s National School serves the children, and there is steady local work at firms like Cole Arc Engineers, Wrights Windows and Skyclad. Milltownpass GAA, founded in 1977 and playing in black and white, fields both men’s and women’s teams. In a nice piece of continuity, the local Scout group reopened a time capsule on 5 January 2025 that had been buried in 2000 – a quarter-century of letters and photographs.
Getting there
Milltownpass sits on the R446 about 10 km south-east of Mullingar – the old N6 route, before the dual-carriageway bypass opened in 2006. There is a small free car park by the community centre near the trailhead. Bus Éireann route 115 between Mullingar and Kinnegad passes through the village, though services are limited, so check the current timetable. Mullingar station, 10 km away, has Irish Rail connections to Dublin Heuston and Galway. The trail is open access with no admission charge; stay on the gravel to protect the bog.
Nearby
- Derrymore Springs Water Adventure Centre – a 15-minute drive, with kayaking, paddle-boating and fishing.
- Rattin Castle – less than 5 km away, a 16th-century tower house on land once held by the de Lacys.
- Kilbeggan Distillery – 12 km north, Ireland’s oldest working whiskey distillery, with tours and tastings.
- Fore Abbey – about 20 km north-west, a medieval monastic site known for its ‘seven wonders’.
- Belvedere House Estate – Georgian gardens and the folly known as the Jealous Wall, a short drive north.
Kilbeggan makes the obvious afternoon pairing: walk the bog in the morning, tour the distillery after lunch.