Twenty minutes west, Lough Key Forest Park wraps around its island-studded lake with a castle on one of them, as if designed by a child with good taste. This is the day-trip with the most boxes ticked: Ireland’s highest tree canopy walk, zip lines with Zipit, lakeside trails, boat hire, and the Boda Borg Crystal Maze — a building full of physical and mental puzzle rooms (minimum age six, no experience needed, humility likely).
Half an hour into the hills, the Arigna Mining Experience takes you underground into Ireland’s last working coal mine, guided by men who dug it. It’s a different kind of memorable — and it shares a thread with Drumhierny’s own story, since Peter La Touche of Drumhierny Lodge bankrolled the Arigna ironworks two centuries ago.
The Beara-Breifne Way — Ireland’s longest walking trail, following O’Sullivan Beare’s 1603 march — passes through this county too. There’s a walking passport you can stamp as you go.