Roscommon Castle

Roscommon Castle

 

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.