We've got great holiday cottages ideally placed for fishing, sailing, walking and birdwatching through this pastoral county. Characteriased by lakes and pastures grazed by beef cattle, Westmeath (An Iarmhi) has a wealth of attractions ranging from a wonderful whiskey distillery (oldest in the world) to the miraculous Fore Valley; an ecological estate where you can learn ancient irish crafts; and the countrys oldest pub in the county town Athlone. Regular river trips explore Lough Ree and its Viking heritage. There also seem to have been sveral eccentric characters from this county through history from Lord Belfield who deliberately built a ruin to spoil his brothers view to Adolphus Cooke who served under Lord Wellington but also believed his grandfather to be a turkey and sentenced his own dog to death for having loose morals, but when the executioner was attacked by the turkey (grandfather) Adophus then thought that the dog was also probably related to him and gave him a reprieve - bizarre! If you feel the need to investigate these 2 gentlemn any further then you might need a holiday cottage or a self catering holiday home in Westmeath. Just see if one fits the bill on the map (many are dog friendly!).