Roscommon is a county of fertile farmland, undulating hillsides, quiet country lanes, and silver lakes. The area has strong musical connections - it was the birthplace of Percy French, and O'Carolan often played there. The town of Boyle is home to one of Ireland’s principal lakeside attractions, Lough Key Forest Park, which offers nature walks, ring forts, cruising, fishing, a bog-garden, an old ice-house, picnic grounds and a fully-serviced caravan and camping site. Herds of deer wander freely through the park. Lough Key is noted for having thirty-two islands.

Other attractions in County Roscommon include Drumanone Dolmen, Boyle Abbey. Roscommon Castle, and the famine museum at Strokestown Park House, which gives a unique insight into the lives of the Irish people who battled against "the great hunger."

Athlone, on the River Shannon, which lies partly in Roscommon and partly in County Westmeath (in the neighbouring province of Leinster), is considered to be Ireland's most central town. Tulsk is the nearest village to the mythological site of Rath Cruachán, home of Queen Medb (Maebh, Maeve) and the Morrigan, which was the starting point for an epic tale in Irish Literature of the Táin Bó Cúailgne or Cattle Raid of Cooley, famously translated by Thomas Kinsella.

Bound by the extensive waterways of the River Shannon and Lough Ree to the east, the River Suck in the west, and Lough Key in the north, County Roscommon is a haven for lovers of boats, watersports, and of course, angling. Cruising on the water in Roscommon is one of the most enjoyable ways to discover this unspoiled pocket of Ireland. Visitors can also discover a rich heritage of early colonization in Roscommon with many burial grounds, megalithic tombs and ring forts. The royal burial site at Rathcroghan was also home to the kings of Connacht and later become home to the high kings of Ireland. Extensive boglands are found in the west of the county providing turf for winter fuel.