{"id":1376,"date":"2026-06-04T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/?p=1376"},"modified":"2026-05-31T18:41:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T17:41:41","slug":"they-sold-up-in-dublin-to-move-to-this-tiny-roscommon-town-and-haven%ca%bct-looked-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/they-sold-up-in-dublin-to-move-to-this-tiny-roscommon-town-and-haven%ca%bct-looked-back\/","title":{"rendered":"They sold up in Dublin to move to this tiny Roscommon town and haven\u02bct looked back"},"content":{"rendered":"

They packed up their Dublin<\/strong> terrace with a mix of nerves and relief, pointing their second-hand estate car west toward the Shannon<\/strong>. It wasn\u2019t a grand plan, more a quiet pivot: a search for time<\/strong>, space, and a slower rhythm they could actually hear. Two years on, life in a small Roscommon<\/strong> town has taken root in ways they didn\u2019t expect\u2014and in ways they now can\u2019t imagine leaving<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Swapping pace for presence<\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

Their move to Elphin<\/strong> began with childcare spreadsheets and a rent review that felt like a deadline<\/strong>. \u201cWe weren\u2019t fleeing,\u201d says Aoife, a digital producer<\/strong>. \u201cWe were just done living by the clock<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mark, who works in software<\/strong>, put it more bluntly: \u201cI wanted to see the evening light, not the M50<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

They drove down the main street of Elphin, passed the old windmill<\/strong>, and felt something ease<\/strong>. The agent\u2019s keys turned in a 1970s bungalow with a thick lawn and a shed roomy enough for a workbench<\/strong>. They could breathe, and talk without calculating the next commute<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Finding a home that fits<\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

The house wasn\u2019t flashy<\/strong>. It had good bones, a solid stove, and a kitchen that wanted fresh tiles<\/strong>. \u201cWe bought space instead of status<\/strong>,\u201d Aoife says. The mortgage, smaller than their Dublin rent<\/strong>, changed the way they argued about money: less fire, more planning<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

They set up desks by a south-facing window<\/strong>. Birds stitched the hedgerows at first light. \u201cIt made email feel like a choice<\/strong>, not a burden<\/strong>,\u201d Mark laughs.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Work without the whiplash<\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

Remote work meant learning new boundaries<\/strong>. Noon walks replaced expensive lunches<\/strong>. Meetings nudged earlier to match London<\/strong>. Broadband wasn\u2019t perfect, but a local installer laid a faster line<\/strong> after two polite calls and a tray of warm scones<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m more productive because I\u2019m not constantly recovering from being busy<\/strong>,\u201d Aoife says. \u201cTurns out the brain loves quiet<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What community really looks like<\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

The first week, a neighbour arrived with rhubarb and the phone number of a man who knows a man who fixes everything<\/strong>. \u201cIn Dublin we waved, here we talk<\/strong>,\u201d Mark says.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

They joined the tidy towns crew<\/strong>, learned names in the post office, and picked up match-day habits they hadn\u2019t known they\u2019d missed<\/strong>. A Tuesday hardware run can take twenty<\/strong> minutes of chat. That\u2019s an appointment they actually keep<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Weekends with room to roam<\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

Saturdays tilt toward wandering<\/strong>: the loop by the windmill, a longer trek in Lough Key Forest Park<\/strong>, a coffee in Boyle with a smug toddler asleep in the buggy<\/strong>. They forage blackberries along quiet lanes<\/strong> and carry them home in stained paper bags<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cYour calendar loosens,\u201d Aoife says. \u201cThe day has space for weather<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What they miss, and what they don\u2019t<\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

They miss the unexpected late show<\/strong>, the effortless sushi, friends clustered within three stops<\/strong> on the Luas. Some friendships thinned, some held, some now involve planned weekends and longer, better conversations<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What they don\u2019t miss: the creeping calculations<\/strong>, the jostle of school places, the feeling that life is spent paying for the chance to live<\/strong> it. \u201cWe wanted margins,\u201d Mark says. \u201cNow we have them<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The cost of less cost<\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

Groceries cost the same, but almost everything else doesn\u2019t<\/strong>. Heating is smarter since they reinsulated the attic with a local crew<\/strong>. The garden throws up potatoes that taste like actual soil<\/strong>, not a memory of it. They buy fewer things and use them longer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A single car works because the town is small and their work is nearby<\/strong>\u2014on a desk, down the hall<\/strong>. Fuel bills are lower, stress bills are lighter<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Advice for the quietly curious<\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re hovering over property sites and street view, they\u2019d say start with a visit<\/strong>. Book a local B&B<\/strong>. Walk it in the rain and at dusk<\/strong>. Ask yourself how silence feels<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n
  • Speak to neighbours, not just estate agents; listen for what people celebrate and what they quietly endure.<\/li>\n

    \n<\/ul>\n

    <\/p>\n

    \u201cEvery town sings a different<\/strong> song,\u201d Aoife says. \u201cMake sure you like the chorus<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    School gates and slow doors<\/h2>\n

    <\/p>\n

    The school run is a stroll<\/strong>. Teachers wave from car windows on non-school days<\/strong>. The GP reception knows their names<\/strong>. Bureaucracy still exists, but doors open with a smaller line and a warmer hello<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    Their child has a garden instead of a shared courtyard and knows the word for a wren<\/strong>. On clear nights, they all know the Milky Way<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    Leaving without losing<\/h2>\n

    <\/p>\n

    They didn\u2019t abandon the city<\/strong>; they changed their angle to it. Dublin is two hours and a coffee away<\/strong>. They go in for work sprints, theatre binges, and long loops of old streets<\/strong>, then point the car west with a cooler bag and a quiet smile<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    \u201cWe were scared we\u2019d feel less<\/strong>,\u201d Mark says. \u201cMostly, we feel more<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    The rhythm they were after<\/h2>\n

    <\/p>\n

    Evenings in Elphin start early and end late<\/strong>, not with noise but with light<\/strong>. There\u2019s a season for everything, for fixing the shed roof and teaching a bike ride on an empty road<\/strong>. They measure the year by the wind over the fields and by who\u2019s drawn to their kitchen table<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    Is life perfect? No. It is particular<\/strong>, which is better. And it\u2019s theirs, measured not in minutes to the office<\/strong>, but in the distance from the back step to the first bright star<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1376"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1390,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1376\/revisions\/1390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}