Welcome to Riverside Guesthouse & Restaurant

Riverside Restaurant and Guesthouse is a family run award winning business at the crossroads of Mayo/Sligo/Roscommon and Galway only 3 km from Knock Airport and Knock shrine, on the door step of the Atlantic way.

We are situated in the Town Centre steps from the all the Public Transport that passes through to the airport, Galway City, Castlebar, Westport and Sligo town. There are also buses to Dublin City Centre and Dublin Airport.

You can reserve a room here on our web site, stay with us before a flight or start your holiday with us. If you are passing through on the N17 or N5 we are a convenient stop off.

All our rooms are recently renovated they are en-suite with TV.

Our Aim is to Welcome People into our Restaurant and Guesthouse, to provide a service and to make sure everyone leaving us has experienced an Irish Welome.

Accommodation

Our Accommodation Guest rooms are individually designed rooms with comfortable beds. All rooms are en-suite. We serve a tasty Irish breakfast with a vegetarian option with your night’s accommodation.

Restaurant

We can put on a special priced menu with a number of choices or you can choose of the A la Carte or Specials available on the evening.

Location

Conveniently located at the the crossroads of Mayo, Sligo, Roscommon and Galway, only 3 km from Knock Airport, Riverside is the ideal base to explore the West of Ireland.

Drive Stay & Dine

We are the closest approved Guest House and Restaurant to Knock Airport. You can be at your destination checked in and having a drink with delicious food within 25 minutes of getting of your plane.

History of Riverside

Riverside, an 157 year old home, and adjoining building was bought by my Grandfather Tom O’Hara New St Ballaghaderren in April 1950 for his only son Eamonn who had recently married Evelyn Cawley  Pound St Ballaghadereen. My parents and Grandfather moved to Charlestown in June 1950 and opened up a Grocery Store, petrol pumps and small electrical shop as my father Eamonn was a fully qualified electrician, he was an agent for radio batteries and later for Bush TV.

In the late 60’s with six of a family, the Grocery business was affected by the introduction to supermarkets in small towns so my Mother Evelyn the entrepreneur of the couple started a bed and breakfast.  She was a very good cook and was involved in Housewife of the Year and she attended courses with local ICA . She welcomed her first guests into the newly adapted family home in summer 1969.

By 1972, Evelyn and Eamonn had closed the grocery shop and had a Coffee lounge serving Evelyn’s home cooking, after the first couple of seasons, Evelyn recognised the demand for bigger meals and started introducing her famous omellete, mixed grills, homemade dishes. They decided to change the name of the business from Coffee Lounge to Riverside, Eamonn was a very good artist and painted the black lines on the building and changed the facade of the building, that are still in existence today.

May 1985, Anthony and I moved back to Charlestown with our daughter Frances from where we worked in the Sligo Park Hotel . We worked the summer with my Parents and then moved to London where Anthony worked in very famous West End Restaurants. We came back the following couple of Summer’s  and then went back to London to work and learn.

In 1991 we bought the then seasonal business off my parents, they retired and built a house on the Well Rd. By then our Son Anthony was born and we decided to open the business the whole year round only closing for two days at Christmas and we still do that today.

In 1997 we extended Riverside as the business was very successful, we needed more dining space a license to sell drink and we needed more rooms for accommodation. Eamonn our second son was born in 1995, we were starting to build a good family as well.

We opened the McKenzie Room Restaurant in August 1997 two weeks before the birth of our third son Eoin. We called the new restaurant after Ms McKenzie she was a spinster dressmaker that was a sitting tenant with the building that adjoined Riverside when it was bought in 1950. When the name of  the restaurant was made public we found out the character Ms MC Kenzie was. My mother had told me stories about her already so I knew a little history of her. She would allow courting couples to meet in her front room during the Lent when no social gatherings were allowed, she would chaperone them, many a match was made there. So I was delighted, the tradition of courting couples were continued in the more modern format as a “date” in the present Mc Kenzie room.

With the help of our loyal staff, we are welcoming people from all over the world into our home an old building one of the first to be built in the town, so it has its charm and it is loved by the family and we have upgraded it to the best of our ability to present day standards. We hope you enjoy visiting us as we will welcoming you.

Gift Vouchers Available for Purchase All YEAR ROUND