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Portumna, County Galway

Things to do in Portumna

The castle and gardens, the forest park, the workhouse centre, the bridge, the harbours and the Hymany Way.

Plan of Portumna with the main sights labelled

The sights as pins on the model; tap one for its page and directions.

7 things to see

  1. Co. Galway Ireland, Feb. 2007. Danny Burke
    01

    Portumna Castle and gardens

    660 m south of the centre

    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. It is now a heritage museum of the Flight of the Wild Geese.

  2. 02

    Portumna Forest Park

    566 m south of the centre

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

  3. 03

    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. 04

    Portumna Bridge

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

  5. 05

    The harbours

    946 m south of the centre

    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 Friary
    06

    Portumna Friary

    702 m south of the centre

    The friary ruins beside the castle avenue.

  7. Derryhiveny Castle
    07

    Derryhiveny Castle

    4.3 km north-east of the centre

    A tower house in the country north of the town.

Things to do

Hurling

Four All-Ireland club titles between 2006 and 2014 make Portumna GAA one of the most successful clubs in the country.

The lake

Boating, water-skiing and wakeboarding on Lough Derg and the Shannon in summer; match angling for pike, perch, bream and roach on the lower town stretch at Rogers Island and the upper stretch at Fairyhill.

Walking and cycling

The forest trails, a free 5 km parkrun every week, and the Hymany Way, which starts here and forms part of the Beara-Breifne Way from Cork to Cavan.

Two festivals

The Great Outdoors Festival over three days in late June, and the Shorelines Arts Festival over four days in late September.

Golf

Eighteen holes of parkland inside the forest, two kilometres out on the Gort road.

Castles, abbeys and old churches nearby

  1. Gate House
    Castles
    508 m
  2. 660 m
  3. 702 m
  4. 2.3 km
  5. 2.6 km
  6. 3.7 km
  7. 3.7 km
  8. 4.1 km
  9. 4.3 km
  10. 4.4 km
Ringforts and sites4Holy wells3Castles14Abbeys2

Parks, beaches, lakes and views

  1. 566 m
  2. 1.2 km
  3. 1.2 km
  4. 1.4 km
  5. 3.9 km
  6. 5.4 km
  7. 6.0 km
  8. Friars Park
    Playgrounds
    6.5 km
  9. 7.4 km
  10. 7.4 km

Sport and leisure

  1. 237 m
  2. Portumna GAA Club
    Sports centres
    401 m
  3. Portumna Town FC
    Sports centres
    487 m
  4. 946 m
  5. 1.2 km
  6. 1.4 km
  7. 2.2 km
  8. 2.2 km

Photographs: No machine-readable author provided. Bogman assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons; JohnArmagh, public domain via Wikimedia Commons; Dfoxvog, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

The descriptions summarise Wikipedia, "Portumna" (CC BY-SA 4.0, read 2026-09-19); positions and the lists are OpenStreetMap. Opening times and admission are not on record here; check before a visit.