"Miss Monaghan" is the title of a well-known Irish reel – and since the major roads running through the county encourage speedy driving it would be very easy to take this as a piece of travel advice. However, to do so would be to miss something topographically intriguing, for much of Monaghan's gently rolling landscape is configured by the stout, grassy hillocks and elongated ridges known as drumlins, which were originally formed at the end of the Ice Age as glaciers receded northwards. The word "drumlin" itself is thought to derive from the Irish word for "back" or "ridge", coupled with the Old English diminutive "-ling".

Greenery predominates with small fields fringed by low hedgerows, and the land is occasionally punctuated by tiny lakes. Such a landscape, however, means that much of the surrounding ground once supported little more than subsistence farming. The sense of life in this part of Ireland is encapsulated in much of the writing of Patrick Kavanagh; born in Inniskeen, his works, especially the autobiographical The Green Fool, fully depict the vicissitudes of rural life.

Monaghan's few towns offer little of interest, though the busy county town itself is attractively laid out, features a few buildings of note and is a major transport hub if you're travelling by bus. To its southwest, the hilltop market town of Clones, almost on the border with Fermanagh, was a former ecclesiastical centre and possesses several notable relics. To Monaghan town's north lies Glaslough, an estate village set around the grandiose Castle Leslie.