Coming into the town

Ferbane (Irish: Féar Bán, meaning "white grass") is a small town on the north bank of the River Brosna in County Offaly, Ireland, between Birr and Athlone at the junction of the N62 National secondary road and the R436 regional road. The name of the town is said to come from the white bog cotton which grows abundantly in the surrounding Bog Of Allen.

Get in

By car

N62 National secondary road and the R436 regional road from Birr and Athlone

By boat

The Grand Canal, which links up with the River Shannon, passes through Gallen townland.

Get around

Walk or cycle

See

• Coole Castle. Sir John MaCoghlan built Coole Castle on the banks of the Brosna in 1575. It was the last of the MacCoghlan castles to be built. He erected it as a present to his second wife Sabina O'Dallachain. Formerly there was a mural slab in the castle with a Latin inscription translated in English as "“This tower was built by the energy of Sir John MacCoghlan, K.T. chief of this Sept at the proper cost of Sabina O'Dallachain on the condition that she should have it for her lifetime and afterwards each of her sons according to their seniority". 
• Kilcolgan Castle (Court). Terence Coghlan built Kilcolgan Castle in the early 1640s. In 1646 the Papal Nuncio was sent to Ireland; he stayed for some time in the castle and wrote admiringly of the castle demesne with its beautifully laid out gardens and peacocks strutting on the lawns. The castle continued to be in the possession of the MacCoghlans until the 18th century when it became uninhabited and fell into disrepair. The remains of the castle were demolished in 1954 and the stones used to make foundations for the power station at Lumcloon. 
• Gallen Priory. Less than a kilometre south of the town, on the site of an ancient monastery founded by the Welsh missionary Saint Canoc in 492, stands Gallen Priory (formerly a convent of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Cluny, now a nursing home). 
• Lemanaghan Monastic Site. Wonderful early Christian Monastic site with ruined medieval church, holy well, stone paved togher and early Christian oratory. Information board on site. Walkway signed from here, across bog, past Castlearmstrong to Boher where St Manchan's shrine is on public display.