"Tullamore" Tullamore by Wolverine_13

This county is best known for it's fantastic stretches of bog land. The bogs are home to a startlingly wide variety of flora and fauna, as well as providing an income for people in the locality. The bogs were formed over the past 8000 when layer upon layer of vegetation compacted into turf. In places the turf is over 30ft deep.

First settled over 9000 years ago, the Offaly countryside offers many reminders of it's long history. Here lie the remains of Irelands largest monastery, Clonmacnoise ' the meadow of the son of Nos'.

During the 19th century, Lord Oxmantown, at Birr Castle, began construction of what was to be the worlds largest telescope. With it's six foot aperature and fifty foot focus, the telescope was aptly named 'The Leviathan'.

From the 1850's onward the telescope became quite an attraction, people came from near and far for a chance at star gazing. However the telescope was not particularly successful, it could not be used on cloudy nights and the mirrors became tarnished and had to be removed. But in the three-quarters of a century of it's use the great telescope made some remarkable contributions to the science of astronomy.