Elphin (el-FIN; Irish: Ail Finn)[2] is a small town in north County Roscommon, Ireland.

Bus Éireann route 468 was introduced to compensate for the loss of the Expressway service and links the town to Strokestown and Carrick-on-Shannon on Mondays, Wednesdays & Saturdays.

The chief of that territory, a noble Druid named Ono, gave land and afterwards his castle or fort to St Patrick to found a church and monastery.

The place, which had hitherto been called Emlagh-Ono (a derivation of its owners name) received the designation of Ail Finn, which means "rock of the clear spring".

It derives from a story of St Patrick raising a large stone from a well opened by him in the land of Ono and placed on its margin.

A new bishop's residence was built in the 1720s to the central block and flanking pavilions plan that is very common in Irish country houses of this period.

It was a modest building, no bigger than a small parish church, with a tall square clock tower at its west end.

According to legend, it was close to Elphin that the mythological figure of Oisin fell from his horse upon his return from Tír na nÓg (The Land of Eternal Youth).

Within 6 km of Elphin is Cruachan (otherwise Rathcroghan), the famous palace of Queen Meave (she of the Táin Bó Cúailnge and a prominent figure in Irish mythology, notably the Ulster Cycle) and the Connacht kings.

The well of Ogulla (otherwise the Virgin Monument), scene of the famous conversion and baptism of Aithnea (Eithne) and Fidelm, the daughters of Leoghari, monarch of Ireland in the time of St Patrick, is also situate near Elphin.