Things to do in Co. Offaly
7 places
1.Slieve Bloom Mountains
Hike Europe's oldest mountains on 17 looped trails
Among Europe's oldest mountains and still one of its least explored ranges, the Slieve Blooms rise to 527m between Offaly and Laois, laced with 17 waymarked loops and a 70km long-distance way.
- Highlights
- 17 waymarked looped walks, 1.4km to 11.7km
- 70.5km Slieve Bloom Way (3 days)
- 100km of graded mountain-bike trails
- Facilities
- Wheelchair access
2.Lough Boora Discovery Park
24 sculptures across a rewilded peat bog
A former industrial peat bog rewilded into 50km of flat trails, lakes and wetlands, with 24 large-scale sculptures made from the machinery that once worked the turf.
- Highlights
- 24 large-scale sculptures built from bog locomotives, rail and bog oak
- The Boora Pyramid, a stepped pyramid of unmortared glacial stone
- Fairy Avenue and its 14 fairy doors
- Facilities
- Good for kids · Dog-friendly · Wheelchair access
3.Playtown Tullamore
60+ role-play worlds across two floors
An award-winning children's museum where kids run their own miniature town — over 60 real-to-life role-play sets across two floors, plus two creative I.C.E Rooms upstairs.
- Highlights
- 60+ real-to-life role-play sets over two levels
- The I.C.E Rooms creative floor for ages 4+
- Suits ages 6 months to 12+, adults join in
- Facilities
- Good for kids · Restrooms · Wheelchair access
4.Tullamore D.E.W. Distillery Visitor Experience
a 105-minute working distillery tour with tasting
The 58-acre grain-to-glass home of Tullamore D.E.W., where a 105-minute guided tour walks you past bubbling stills and 50,000 sleeping casks and ends with whiskey drawn straight from a barrel.
- Highlights
- 105-minute behind-the-scenes guided tour of a working distillery
- Welcome Irish coffee on arrival
- Still House with bubbling copper stills
- Facilities
- Restrooms · Wheelchair access
5.Birr Castle Demesne
Home of the world's largest telescope for 70 years
A 120-acre living demesne in the heart of Ireland, where one family's obsession with science, astronomy and plants shaped a landscape and a telescope that ruled the skies for 70 years.
- Highlights
- The Great Telescope (Leviathan), 1845
- Ireland's Historic Science Centre and world's oldest darkroom
- 120 acres of parklands, rivers and the Fernery waterfall
- Facilities
- Wheelchair access
6.Leap Castle, Ireland
a haunted 16th-century tower house you can visit
A privately owned 16th-century tower house on the R421 north of Roscrea, one of Ireland's longest continually inhabited castles and, by its own reputation, its most haunted — visited by arrangement with the owner rather than as a state-run heritage site.
- Highlights
- The Bloody Chapel and its oubliette
- The Great Hall and vaulted Upper Hall
- The ruined Priest's House
7.Charleville Castle Heritage Trust
a haunted Gothic Revival castle of towers and turrets
A crenellated Gothic Revival fantasy of towers and turrets, begun in 1798 and kept alive by volunteers — though public tours are currently paused for works. Check before you travel.
- Highlights
- Gothic Revival masterpiece designed by Francis Johnston in 1798
- Towers, turrets, battlements and hand-carved stairways
- Reputedly one of Ireland's most haunted castles
- Facilities
- Good for kids · Wheelchair access