Irish Sport of Road Bowling

Road Bowling is a challenging outdoor sport. It is played, generally with a 28oz cast iron bowl, about 58 mm in diameter, on selected public roads.

The rules of bowling are straightforward with the basic objective being to cover the coarse in the least number of shots. Two, three, four or even teams can compete in any one score.

The game of bowling has been around for hundreds of years and at one time was played all over the county. Nowadays however, the stronghold of bowling are Armagh and parts of Tyrone in Ulster; in Munster: Cork, New York, Boston, West Virgina in the USA and parts of Limerick; and Mayo in Connacht.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• gaa
• ireland
• road
• bowling
• celtic
• sports
• bowls
• bullets
• armagh
• cork

[Panther95]

I wish I could play this sometime! It looks like a buttload of fun. I wonder how many throws it takes to get a mile?

[RichMedia]

Hey Panther,

Yes it is great fun! The throws in a mile depend on a number of things, surface of the road, any dips, too many corners etc. If for example it was a smooth straight road its possible to cover around 300 metres per throw. If this is uphill it would be less, downhill more... make sense?

[AsianMarck]

Oh man I saw this game on Anthony Bourdain No Reservations and it just look like a great time. Its almost like golf but not, more laid back, people chill'n in the road while the game is goin, tak'n bets. I live in North Carolina I wish I could play, might have to start something up myself.

[RichMedia]

Hey there yes it's a great sport.  there is a club in West Virgina that you can order bowls from and they will deliver them for you go to this address: wvirishroadbowling . c o m

[Skitlus]

@RichMedia

300 metres in one throw?

I doubt any human being has ever thrown any ball that far on a straight road..

[magna59]

Road Bowling to become an Olympic sport !

[MartyCullen145]

Fergal Carr?? .... lol... U living n America??? watz the trowers out ther?? Cn U through at tassagh n Eglish last year...

[RICHIE99900]

great stuff ..........wouldnt doubt ya boy

[moldav9]

Good to see the old road bowling on here. Used to throw myself one time but a shoulder operation put paid to that. Great sport. I love watching it.