Location: Roscommon, Roscommon County Map
Constructe: 1269 by Robert de Ufford
Roscommon Castle is a medieval castle in a town of Roscommon in
Roscommon County in Ireland. Roscommon Castle was constructed in
1269 by Robert de Ufford. The name Roscommon derives from Saint
Comán, who built a monastery in the place of today's place in the
5th century. The forests around the monastery were known as Comán's
forest or in Irish as Ros Comáin. That was later turned into
Roscommon.
In 1253, a Dominican monastery was founded here by Felim O'connor, a
king in Connacht. The castle of Roscommon was built in 1269, is the
ruin of an Anglo-Norman fortification.
Today, Roscommon, located away from the major traffic flows, is most
likely to have the importance of a market town for the rural
environment. The number of inhabitants of Roscommon was determined
at Census 2016 with 5876 persons. However, with the Dr. Hyde Park,
the city has had a venue of supra-regional importance since 1969;
the stadium of the Gaelic Athletic Association. It originally
attracted 30,000 visitors, but the capacity was reduced to 18,500 in
2011. The stadium is also home to the local Gaelic Football and
Hurling Teams. South-east of Roscommon, Lough Ree is one of the
three Great Lakes in the course of the Shannon.
The nearest major cities are Longford in the North-East and Athlone
in the south-east direction; from Dublin to the East is Roscommon
145 km away, from Galway in the south-west direction 75 km, can be
reached via the N63. Bus Éireann connects Roscommon several times a
day with the Busáras in Dublin as with the other major Irish cities.
Roscommon, unlike many other Irish cities of its size, is still
connected to rail in Ireland; the railway station was opened in
1860.