Longford Literary Trail - Driving Trail

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The literary tradition in Longford is very strong and includes connections with Jane Austen and Oscar Wilde. Maria Edgeworth was based in Edgeworthstown and her story is well presented in the Maria Edgeworth Centre. Follow the Edgeworthstown Walking Trail and get a real flavour of the past and history including the grave of Oscar Wildes younger and much loved sister.

Oliver Goldsmith was born in Longford and was educated in Edgeworthstown. You can visit his birth place and many of the locations included in his poems and plays. Ardagh Village is the location of his romantic famous play ‘She Stoops to Conquer’. Carry on into Ballymahon where Goldsmith lived for many years and travel back in time to a rural Irish Town that has changed little since the poets early days.

Leo Casey, the Irish Rebel poet and song writer was also closely connected with Ballymahon and Shrule Bridge in particular where the Rebel song “At the Rising of the Moon" is based. Follow Leo’s trail through all the schools and places associated with Casey and back to Longford Town where the famous Irish poet Padraic Colum was born.

Carriglass Manor was the ancestral home of Thomas Langlois Lefroy.  In 1796, Lefroy began a flirtation with English novelist Jane Austen. Jane Austen wrote two letters to her sister Cassandra mentioning "Tom Lefroy", and some have suggested that it may have been he whom Austen had in mind when she invented the character of Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, as the courtship between Tom Lefroy and Jane Austen took place over the year or so that Pride and Prejudice was written. 

Useful websites relating to places of interest or subjects on the Longford Literary Trail: Maria Edgeworth Centre, Library Ireland - Oliver Goldsmith.

Download map here: Longford Literary Trail

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Distance: 73 kilometres

Duration: 80 minutes non-stop