Driving Route: Travel through beautiful Cavan & Monaghan

Cavan and Monaghan 210 km

The roads of Cavan and Monaghan are wonderful things, conspiring to reduce the careful motorist to a gentle speed, in harmony with the peace and quiet of the country. Known as a 'drumlin' landscape, it is a seemingly endless range of low, oval hills. They are composed of clay and gravel and were scattered by a glacier which passed that way ten thousand years ago. Most important of all, they dammed the rivers and created the marvellous lakes of the region, making it a paradise for nature lovers and boating and fishing people - and for those who enjoy a traditional landscape of hedges and farms and cattle rather than the drama of the mountains or the buzz of big towns.

From Ballyconnell go southwards, crossing the Erne at Butler's Bridge, to Cavan town. On the outskirts of the town they make the beautiful Cavan Crystal glass. You may watch the workers on weekdays and visit the showrooms any time. Then head southwest for Kilmore which has a cathedral and, close by, the remains of a stronghold built by the Anglo-Norman warlord Walter de Lacy in 1211 in the hopes of subduing Ulster. He failed.

To the southeast is Ballyjamesduff. Few people had heard the name until the peerless Percy French immortalised the town and its native Paddy Reilly in the song which begins:

The garden of Eden is vanished, they say,
But I know the lie of it still-
Just turn to the left at the bridge of Finnea
And stop when half way to Cootehill....

Just on the outskirts of the town stands a modern church, with bright stained glass. Behind it is the great grey convent built for the Poor Clares in the 19th century and refurbished and re-opened in 1996 as the Cavan County Museum. The building itself is worth a visit, austere, but with big windows and bright rooms and a view to a well-tended garden. The museum collections include a dazzling array of processional banners, Orange and Green, a good selection of artefacts going back to the stone age, a very fine collection of costumes - and a welcoming tea room.

Proceed to Virginia, which bears the same name as the two States in the US for much the same reason: founded in the days of King James I and named in honour of Elizabeth, the virgin queen. Virginia has the same pattern as a number of the towns of Cavan in being built on either side of a broad, straight street with a church at the top of the town. Nearby is the Park Hotel, approached by a wonderfully dark avenue of beech trees which opens out into old park land, now a very attractive golf course, and to the hotel. Be tempted to take a cup of coffee there with home-made scones and cream - though you might stay much longer. The outlook is down to Lough Ramor, over a beautifully tended garden and the rolling green with magnificent trees.

Head north-east for Kingscourt, a spaciously-planned town, unusual in Ireland in being the centre of a mining community. A little way to the south lie deposits of gypsum, formed during the Permian era when Ireland enjoyed a very much warmer climate than to-day. King's court is a translation of the Gaelic name Dún a Rí and the old name is commemorated in a delightful forest park close to the town.

Go through the minor lakelands of Shercock towards Cootehill and stop to look at Cohaw Megalithic Tomb. Described as a 'dual court-tomb' it consists of a narrow rectangle bordered by enormous boulders, up to chest-height. At each end there is an open-ended 'court' made from similar stones. Excavations revealed a stone-age pottery vessel and the remains of three young people. These court-tombs, built five thousand years ago, generally contain very few traces of burials and are more likely to have been temples than graves.

Monaghan town lies northwards from Cootehill and is particularly interesting because of its 17th century layout, the town houses arranged around a 'diamond' - rather than a square. Monaghan's Diamond is occupied by a Visitor Centre in the old market hall. Just up the hill from it is the award-winning County Museum which has a gallery of paintings by local and national artists in addition to its older artefacts.

The Cavan-and-Monaghan part of this tour ends in Inniskeen, a small village which might have remained unsung, had it not been the birthplace and childhood home of the poet Patrick Kavanagh. Kavanagh left the village for the bigger world of Dublin's fair city - but, besides the poems, he wrote Tarry Flynn, a delightful autobiographical novel telling of life in the small, isolated community. He is buried in the churchyard there and the old church now houses a folk museum - with many memorabilia of the poet.

Just 10 km to the east of Inniskeen is Dundalk - modern, vibrant Ireland again and easy access by motorway to ports and airports of Belfast and Dublin.

FURTHER INFORMATION
For further information on any of the items featured above, or on the counties in general, please contact:

Fáilte Ireland North West
Aras Reddan
Temple Street
Sligo
Tel: 00353 (0) 7191 61201
Fax: 00353 (0) 719160360

Email: northwestinfo@failteireland.ie
Web: www.irelandnorthwest.ie