Suggested cruising options Carrick-on-Shannon*

A nature and history adventure around Lough Key

Lough Key is located in the heart of the exceptional Lough Key Forest Park: a preserved area and multi-activity complex that has to be on your list of ‘must-see’ places during your boating holiday north of the River Shannon. The forest park is home to a very rich wildlife that you may be lucky enough to see so be on the lookout for otters, kingfishers, badgers, herons, fallow deer, swans and red squirrels... You can also go cycling, hiking, kayaking and even tree climbing! The Rockingham Remembered Tour course mixes underground tunnels and a 9 metre tall viewing tower which offers a spectacular view of the park, the lake and the surrounding area. For groups of more than 3 people, book a 2-hour slot at Boda Borg (prohibited for children under 7 for security reasons) which is an original Swedish concept combining reflection and strategy in the style of an escape game. Here your crew will need to work together again, this time calling on your team spirit to solve the 15 quests and 47 challenges that are put to you in this building that’s arranged on two floors!

Boyle: revisit Ireland of the past

Welcome to Boyle, the last stopover point before resuming navigation towards Carrick-on-Shannon. Here, some of the buildings have survived for centuries. Your walk begins at King House, a bourgeois house built in the 18th century and later transformed into a military base for the Irish Regiment of the British Army. An educational tour of the premises awaits you, with a mix of museum displays and art galleries. Not far away is Boyle Abbey, a former Cistercian monastery founded in the 12th century by the prominent McDermott family (who also owned the castle of the same name in the middle of Lough Key). Admire the columns sculpted with the effigy of the monks and stroll through the alleys of the cloister. Go back in time to return to the Neolithic era at the Drumalone dolmen, a burial monument erected around 5,000 years ago.