Esker Hills Golf Club

The word "esker" is Irish before it is English — it entered the scientific vocabulary from the Gaelic word for the long, winding ridges of stratified sand and gravel deposited by meltwater streams flowing through tunnels beneath the retreating glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age. County Offaly sits at the heart of one of the densest esker networks in the world: the land here is a glacially sculpted patchwork of ridges, kettlehole lakes, and raised bogland, all formed roughly 10,000 to 15,000 years ago as the ice sheet pulled back. Christy O'Connor Jnr, who designed Esker Hills in 1996, moved as little soil as possible and let the natural ridges dictate the routing. In his own words: "Esker Hills is the only inland links type course I know of, which makes golf a pleasure all year round." He was right about both claims. The terrain creates 30 to 40-foot elevation changes uncommon anywhere else in the midlands, the sand-based glacial material drains exceptionally well, and the course plays year-round without the wet conditions that reduce most inland Irish courses in winter.

Shane Lowry, who won the 2019 Open Championship at Royal Portrush, learned the game at Esker Hills as a Tullamore local. In 2009, as an amateur still representing the club, he became the first amateur to win the Irish Open — at County Louth. When Lowry reached the 18th green at Portrush ten years later with the Claret Jug secured, the Esker Hills clubhouse was packed, and the members sang "The Offaly Rover" before he'd even finished the hole.

Offaly hurling: four All-Ireland titles, the most dramatic of them in 1994. Trailing Limerick deep into the second half and seemingly beaten, Offaly scored 2 goals and 5 points in the final five minutes to win 3–16 to 2–13. It is remembered simply as the "five-minute final." The county also hosted the very first All-Ireland hurling final in Birr in 1888.

Tullamore D.E.W. Whiskey has been made in the town since 1829. The initials stood for Daniel Edmund Williams, the general manager who became owner. The new distillery outside town opened in 2014 and produces 11 million litres a year — tours, blending sessions, and bottling your own bottle are all available. Clara Bog, 20km away, is the finest remaining example of midland raised bog in Western Europe.