Driving

Lough Derg Drive

Lough Derg has generous proportions and a generous spirit. Most lakes are beautiful, but Derg is more so than most, surrounded by mountains and with a shoreline of marvellous complexity, giving bays large and small, with a scattering of islands for good measure. There are shallow bits where children can paddle in safety and deep bits where older persons can operate boats of all shapes, sizes and speeds. The surface is sometimes mirror calm, giving perfect reflections of clouds and mountains and sometimes wild enough to thrill the most intrepid wind-surfers. For ordinary mortals, who wish to do no more than admire its beauties from dry land, the roads which encircle the lake offer endless viewing points.

Extending for 25 miles in the valley of the River Shannon, Lough Derg served at the one time as a boundary between the ancient kingdoms of Leinster and Munster and as a thoroughfare allowing ships to penetrate to the heart of Ireland. You can drive around the lake in a day ? or spend a lifetime of holidays by its shores, as thousands of people do.

The twin towns of Ballina and Killaloe lie in a valley between the slatey ranges of the Arra Mountains and Slieve Bernagh. Their rock is so tough that it forms a natural dam in the valley of the Shannon and that is why the lake lies upstream of them. As the first crossing point in 25 miles, Killaloe was a strategic point of more than ordinary importance and the O?Brien kings of Thomond, the clan of the great Brian Boru, made it their headquarters and tradition tells that this was the site of Kincora, their palace. Killaloe is home to the Brian Boru Heritage Centre.

The beautiful cathedral, with its tall lancet windows, has looked benignly down for eight hundred years. One of its treasures is a stone inscribed in the ancient Irish Ogham script with a translation in Runic in honour of a gentleman of Viking descent named Thurgrim. The old lock-keeper?s house by the bridge has been rebuilt as a heritage centre and boat trips up the lake operate from nearby.

The lake drive goes northwards, up the Shannon, passing a great earthen mound known as Brian Boru?s fort. Then you meet the first great bay and can relax at the neat picnic place beside an old jetty. This is the part of the lake most loved by people engaged in water sports and on a fine day the bay is full of canoes and wind-surfers.

Then the road rises to leave the lake and go through the hillside village of Ogonelloe, before descending again to follow the margin of Scarriff Bay. Less than a mile down the hill from Ogonelloe is one of the loveliest viewing points on the whole lake drive. You look down on a flotilla of islands ? the illusion of a line of boats is made even stronger by the fact that the biggest, Holy Island, has a 10th century monastic round tower that faintly resembles a smokestack.

The next village is Tuamgraney, with a small castle and a rather unimpressive church. This church deserves more respect than its looks inspire: people have worshipped there for more than a thousand years. In the 1990s the local community repaired and refurbished part of the church to add an exhibition and heritage centre. A right turn just after the church leads down to a little harbour, on the edge of the Scarriff River, where lake barges used to discharge their cargoes in the old days.

Scarriff, less than two miles from Tuamgraney, is a small market town and an excellent coarse and game angling centre.

The road runs close to the lake to Mountshannon, one of the busiest yachting centres on Lough Derg. The village is a charming one with church and market house built from the honey-coloured local sandstone. The old harbour below the village has been greatly enlarged and, in spite of the building of a marina, is filled to overflowing with boats in summer.

A signpost to Williamstown, at Whitegate, the next village, takes a winding route down to the lakeside and another of the old harbours. Then the road leaves the waterside and stays away from it all the way to Portumna, the town which stands by the head of the lake. Portumna Castle, a palatial 17th century house overlooking the lake, was accidentally burned in 1826 but has been restored and opened to visitors. Close by is Portumna Forest Park, a heavenly place with miles and miles of shaded footpaths.

The little old harbour at Portumna has been enlarged to accommodate one of the biggest fleets of hire cruisers on the Shannon ? a week or two afloat makes for a marvellous holiday. Cross the river by the long, low bridge and proceed to the delightful village of Terryglass. A great centre of religion and learning for seven hundred years, its importance waned in the 13th century. The 19th century Catholic church is richly decorated, its Protestant neighbour has been converted to a craft shop.

Take the road from Terryglass through Ballinderry to Coolbaun, where you may turn right at the crossroads for a lakeside diversion, joining the main road again at Ballycolliton and a right turn for Puckaun. Thence you may proceed directly to Nenagh or be tempted to follow a winding route which ends by the lakeshore at Dromineer one of the most distinguished centres for fishing and boating.

From Dromineer follow the signposts to Nenagh, a market town so ancient that its Gaelic name Aonach testifies to its importance as a fair ground. The Butler family built a strong castle there in 1217: much of it has disappeared, but the great circular keep has survived, with the help of a little tidying up around the top storey and battlements.

The road going west from Nenagh goes through Newtown ? where you might turn off to see the old watermill ? and Portroe to the best viewing points on the entire lake drive. Portroe was the centre of a slate-quarrying industry in the 18th century, enjoying international renown until slates of even better quality were discovered in Wales. If you turn left in Portroe you have the fun of an exceedingly steep and narrow road that leads to the Graves of the Leinstermen, high on the slopes of Tountinna Mountain. Who the Leinstermen were and how, when or why they died, nobody knows for sure. But they were provided with an incomparable resting place. A lower, gentler road leads straight on from Portroe to a less exalted but satisfactory lookout place. The journey ends by descending to the riverside once more, entering the village of Ballina which vies for the provision of excellent food and drink with its partner Killaloe at the other end of the 13-arched stone bridge

Distances: Killaloe to Tuamgraney 16kms; Tuamgraney to Williamstown 16kms; Williamstown to Portumna 26kms; Portumna to Terryglass 11kms; Terryglass to Nenagh 26kms; Nenagh to Portroe 10kms; Portroe to Ballina 12kms. Total round trip 117kms.