Bagenalstown

Walter Bagenal planned a grand town here in the eighteenth century, to be called New Versailles, but the coach road was moved away and he built little more than a courthouse, now the public library. The railway of 1846 made the town, and its Italianate station of limestone and granite is one of the finest in Ireland. In its milling days barges carried grain, beet, coal, turf and Guinness from the town; now a lock, riverside paths and picnic tables sit right in the centre, Waterways Ireland lists a public slipway. From June to August the geothermally heated outdoor pool by the river opens to visitors, and there are wheelchair-friendly angling stands nearby. Supermarkets, cafés and pubs are within easy reach, and the OPW gauge at Royal Oak, across the river, covers this reach.