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NENAGH is usually jam-packed with heavy traffic trying to plough its way through on the main Dublin-Limerick road. It has one singular historical remain, a colossal round castle keep with walls 20ft thick, its five storeys reaching a height of 100ft and topped with nineteenth-century castellations. Totally gutted within, this final retreat tower was originally one of five round towers which, linked by a curtain wall, formed a Norman stronghold. Founded by Theobald Walter, a cousin of Thomas a Becket, it was occupied by the Butlers, then captured in turn by the O'Carrols of Eile, Cromwell, went back to James II and then to and fro between Ginckel (King William's chief general) and O'Carrol in the Williamite war. And there the fighting stopped until many centuries later when a farmer, wanting to get rid of a nest of sparrows that were feeding on his crops, stuck some gunpowder in the walls of the keep and blew another hole in the fortress. A few reinforced concrete steps help you to get near the top, but there's little to be seen. Across the road from the keep, the Nenagh heritage centre (Easter-Oct Mon-Fri 9.30am-5pm; GBP2/?2.54) is set in the old jail, now a Convent of Mercy school. Housed in the octagonal Governor's House, up the driveway, it has a display room housing temporary exhibitions, a mock-up of an old schoolroom with a four-foot mannequin nun, and a re-created old post office, bar and telephone exchange. In the basement are the usual agricultural items and a faithfully reproduced but clinical-looking forge. Back at the entrance arch, the cells of the jail have their original hefty iron cell doors, and you can also see the former exercise yard, tiny and cluttered. Buses from Dublin and Limerick stop right in the centre of town, some also stop at the train station , which is on the Thurles side of town, a short walk from the town centre. The tourist office is on Connolly Street (mid-May to mid-Sept Mon-Sat 9.30am-1pm & 2-5.30pm; tel 067/31610). There's reasonably priced B&B at Sun View , on Ciamaltha Road (tel 067/31064; GBP33-40/?41.90-50.79), quite close to the bus and train stations, and you can get excellent home-cooked meals at Country Choice Deli & Coffee Bar , 25 Kenyon St; the shop stocks superb Irish cheeses.
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