Skip to content
GalwayOnFoot.iePortumna
County Galway · Connacht · Port Omna

About Portumna

Portumna is a town in County Galway, 59 km east of Galway city, with 1,690 people at the 2022 census. The landing place of the oak where the Shannon opens into Lough Derg: a Clanricarde house of 1618, a workhouse that tells the whole story, a forest of 1,500 acres and the biggest swing bridge in Europe.

Population
1,690 (2022 census)
Where
59 km from Galway, 133 km from Dublin
Position
53.0923° N, 8.2193° W, 48 m above sea level
In Irish
Port Omna
On the model
1,363 buildings, 28 streets, 99 places in 39 kinds
Read more
Portumna on Wikipedia
The 3D model of Portumna with every named place pinned
Castle Avenue, Portumna, Co. Galway
Castle Avenue, Portumna, Co. Galway
P L Chadwick, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Abbey Street, Portumna, Co. Galway
Abbey Street, Portumna, Co. Galway
P L Chadwick, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Co. Galway Ireland, Feb. 2007. Danny Burke
Co. Galway Ireland, Feb. 2007. Danny Burke
No machine-readable author provided. Bogman assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons
The walled kitchen garden, Portumna Castle
The walled kitchen garden, Portumna Castle
David P Howard, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

A short history

  1. Before 1618
    Clanricarde's house. Richard Burke, fourth Earl of Clanricarde, built Portumna Castle before 1618: a semi-fortified house rather than a keep, and the main seat of the de Burgos for more than two hundred years.
  2. 1826
    The fire. The castle was gutted by fire in 1826.
  3. 1886
    The Land War begins. The Land League's plan of campaign against rents started in Portumna, aimed at Hubert de Burgh-Canning, Marquess of Clanricarde, for his treatment of tenants.
  4. 1913
    The golf club. Portumna Golf Club was founded in 1913; its eighteen-hole parkland course inside the forest park was ranked 53rd in Ireland in 2014.
  5. 1985
    Port-mud-na. In August 1985 the three Irish scout associations held their first joint jamboree here for International Youth Year; the mud gave it a name everyone still uses.
  6. 2010
    The forest marathon. The Portumna Forest Marathon began in 2010 with a full and half marathon and 50 km and 100 km ultras; it staged a World Cup trophy race in 2014.

The full history, 12 moments in order

What to see

  1. Portumna Castle and gardens660 m

    The Clanricarde house of before 1618, burned in 1826 and partly restored: the ground floor is open from April to October, with formal gardens and the restored seventeenth-century walled kitchen garden.

  2. Portumna Forest Park566 m

    Six hundred hectares of Coillte forest on Lough Derg, with walks, bike trails, viewpoints and the ruins of the fifteenth-century Cistercian abbey.

  3. The Irish Workhouse Centre

    In the 1850 workhouse north-east of the town, the only centre in Ireland devoted to the history of the workhouses.

  4. Portumna Bridge

    The 1911 steel bridge over the Shannon into Tipperary, the largest swing bridge of its age in Europe.

  5. The harbours946 m

    Connacht Harbour on the river by Bridge Road and the New Harbour on Lough Derg beside the castle, with cruisers for hire and moorings at Belle Isle.

  6. Portumna Friary702 m

    The friary ruins beside the castle avenue.

All the things to see and do

Questions people ask

Where is Portumna?
In County Galway, in the province of Connacht, in the west of Ireland: 59 km east of Galway city and 133 km west of Dublin, on the Shannon bridge into Tipperary and the N65 towards Loughrea.
What is the population of Portumna?
1,690 people at the 2022 census.
What is there in Portumna?
On the map, 99 named places in 39 kinds: 11 places to eat and drink, 5 shops, 7 schools, churches and public buildings, and 55 things to see within 12 km.
What is Portumna known for?
Portumna Castle of 1618, the forest park on Lough Derg, the Irish Workhouse Centre, the 1911 swing bridge over the Shannon, four All-Ireland club hurling titles, and the Land War, which began here in 1886.
What is the history of Portumna?
A crossing of the Shannon with a long history of ferries and bridges, the seat of the Clanricarde Burkes from before 1618 until the fire of 1826, a workhouse from 1850, the start of the Land War in 1886, the steel bridge of 1911, the state's purchase of the forest in 1948, and the hurling years since 2006.

Getting around

Portumna sits on the Shannon bridge into Tipperary and the N65 towards Loughrea. 1 bus stop and 2 car parks are on the map.

History, sights and civic facts summarise Wikipedia, "Portumna" (CC BY-SA 4.0, read 2026-09-19). Population is the CSO census as listed there. Distances and everything on the model are OpenStreetMap.