Ireland day 1368. Friday 27 June 2025- Athlone Again

Today’s summary	Decided to drive over to Athlone to try and see the castle and art gallery which were both closed when we visited previously in April 2023. This time the gallery was still shut but the castle was open and interesting. Had lunch in a slightly odd café and also looked at the barracks (from the outside) before returning to Malahide. Stopped off at the ALSAA sports club by the airport so Val could take a look at the running track. Snacks for dinner again, and an episode of “Mad Men”.
Today’s weather	Overcast all day and occasionally drizzly. Moderate south westerly wind. Appx 22c

Today’s overview location (The green mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Athlone Again

Commentary

Just over two years ago – April 2023 in fact – we drove over to Athlone to visit the castle and the art gallery, only to discover that both were closed. Today we decided to pay a return visit to see if we could be more successful.

The answer turned out to be a qualified “yes”. The art gallery was shut, as they were preparing for a major new exhibition launching this evening. But the castle was open.

But before doing any more exploration we needed to find somewhere for lunch, as we were both hungry. Eventually we settled on the “Beans and Leaves” café. The staff were charming and the food was good, but it was rather let down by the impersonal website you had to log onto so you could order your lunch. And even worse, a “suggested” 20% tip was added automatically unless you manually removed it. Anyway, it was a satisfying meal and not too expensive, though not as good as the Portuguese restaurant (now sadly closed) that we had visited last time.

We walked back over the Shannon bridge to the castle, and bought tickets to have a look round. It was actually quite a good exhibition, and I learned a lot more about the sieges of Athlone in 1690 and 1691. In many ways they were a re-run of the battle of the Boyne which was earlier in 1690. The combatants were the Williamites (the invading Protestant army) and the Jacobites (the defending Catholic forces).

Just like the Boyne, this wasn’t really an Irish conflict, it was a struggle for European hegemony which happened to be played out on Irish soil. The leader of the Williamites was actually a Dutchman (Baron von Ginkel) whereas the Jacobites were headed by the Frenchman Charles Chalmont, marquis de Saint-Ruth. Eventually the Williamites prevailed and The Williamite war was finally concluded when the Jacobites capitulated after the Battle of Aughrim later in 1691. It is thought that around 120,000 people died in the 1690-91 conflicts, of which the majority were civilians.

After leaving the castle, we took a quick look at the military barracks (still in use) behind the church. You can’t see much actually as it is hidden behind a big wall. It’s only open to the public on one day of the year – during Heritage Week. It was of particular interest to me as the grandmother of one of my oldest friends may have been born there.

By this stage it was raining so we hot footed it back to the car and set off for the 90 minute drive back to Dublin. We passed the time listening to podcasts and then broke the journey at the ALSAA sports club near Dublin airport. Val wanted to check out their running track and indeed it did look pretty good. She even did a quick 400m lap to test the running surface.

We were back at the flat before 7pm so settled down for a snack dinner (again) with a nice glass of Malbec, and another episode of “Mad Men”. After tonight, we only have three more left to see, so will probably finish off this epic viewing marathon over the weekend.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Some parts of Athlone are colourful – but I mainly think of it as a grey town. Grey stone buildings, grey river and grey sky.	The Luan Gallery – closed for the second time of visiting!

Decorative adornment at the castle. the exhibition inside was very well done. Lots of interactive displays, films and informative panels. I learned quite a lot!	Nice bacon sausage and egg bap at “Beans and Leaves” – but eccentric ordering system

Athlone Custume barracks, from the back of the church	The ALSAA clubhouse – it’s well equipped and as well as the outdoor running track, it also has a gym and a bowling alley. (ALSAA was founded by Aer Lingus in 1948 – hence the name: Aer Lingus Social and Athletics Association)

Val on the track. Olympian-in-waiting?