Laois Town and Villages - Ancestral Research, Family History, Laois, Offaly, Genealogy

Dominated by the towering Rock of Dunamaise, it seems as if Laois has protected its secrets for generations. But historical treasures do exist. From the ancient Round Tower of Timahoe, the elegant magnificence of Emo Court or the wild and lonely isolation of the Slieve Bloom mountains, Laois boasts a diversity of remains and monuments to a varied and proud past.

In the tranquil days of the early Christian era Laois was a haven of piety and sanctity, the silent ruins which today are scattered throughout the county, gentle but poignant reminders of the monastic era which originally shaped our Christian heritage. The sept or seven-fold system seems to have been a peculiarity of Gaelic civil life interwoven with ecclesiastical divisions and custom. An old common saying was 'he (she or it) is the talk of the seven parishes.' The 'Seven Laoises' was a lose description of both land divisions and clan divisions and the following names were generally recognised as the Seven Clans of Laois: O'Moore, O'Lalor, O'Doran, O'Dowling, O'Devoy (O'Deevy), O'Kelly and McEvoy.

The Normans came amidst the din of military clamour but they were quickly absorbed by the local population and Laois continued throughout the medieval era as a Gaelic outpost on the borders of the Pale. However, the storm clouds were looming on the horizon. For even though the plantation of Queen Mary was easily brushed aside as the Great Hugh O'Neill marched south towards Kinsale the administrative framework had been established which allowed the modern county unit to emerge and which would allow future plantations to succeed. The 17th century saw the arrival of Cromwell and his troops and with his customary barbarity he proceeded to obliterate the progress of centuries. The Rock of Dunamaise was blown apart by rampaging Roundheads in 1650 and Laois, like the rest of the country, was quickly subjugated. The rich, fertile lands of Laois passed to the new colonists, the delightful demesne and impressive houses still in existence, statements of the affluence and prosperity which the county afforded. So come and explore, invite Laois to tell of its past, and discover a wealth of history and heritage from every generation of Ireland's past in this relaxing part of the Midlands.

HISTORY

Laois is fortunate in its historians, yet there is much still to be told. The Office of Public Works has identified more than one thousand sites and monuments in the county, but there are more.

The earliest people in Laois were small bands of Mesolithic migratory hunters-fishers-gatherers who appeared about 8500 years ago. Then came Neolithic farmers who left at least a chert javelin head near Glenkitt in Slieve Bloom, and burial mounds in Clonaslee and Cuffsborough.

In 2500 B.C. Bronze Age people arrived with new ideas and practices. They left examples of the fulacht fiadh or cooking place, wonderful weapons and ornaments, and hill forts such as Clopook and Monelly. Their megalithic monuments may include the Ass's Manger (possibly a wedge tomb near Luggacurren, a stone circle in nearby Monamonry ("Druid's Altar"), and the standing stone in the motte and ring fort at Skirke near Borris-in-Ossory.

The pre-Christian Celtic Iron Age is one of bloody conquest by a succession of ruling dynasties. We are left with their ring barrows and forts, and a wealth of heroic literature originally in oral form.

By the early sixth-century Christianity was well-established in the county. Most of the early churches and monastic foundations were of now rotted wood. "There is something of the melancholy of the human condition in these holy places, of the joy and sadness of brief life, of the search for meaning and a place... These are the most sacred places in Laois. Many of the monasteries, founded by genuinely holy men, became too wealthy to be ignored by predatory native warrior aristocracy and by marauding Vikings perhaps from the re-discovered longphort at Dunrally near Vicarstown.

About 1175 - 1325 the Normans had control of the best land in the county. They founded boroughs such as Castletown, Dunamase, Durrow and Timahoe, and brought the feudal system, economic organisation, new farming, the rabbit, architecture, literature and learning. Left on the ground are mottes and baileys, manor farms, Lea Castle and Dunamase. Gaelic society survived in the bogs and forests and foothills of Slieve Bloom.

The fourteenth-century brought a Gaelic revival and Anglo-Norman decline. Laoighseach O Mordha "violently ejected almost all the English from their lands and inheritance". The most impressive of the monuments that have survived from this violent Gaelic period are the tower houses or "castles".

The revival of English power in the sixteenth-century was fiercely resisted by the O'Mores. Even so, in 1548 their lands were confiscated, and a "campa" was built at Portlaoise. In 1556 the "campa" known to the English as the Fort of Leix, or Fort Protector, was renamed Maryborough in honour of Queen Mary. Also in 1556 orders were issued for the plantation of Laois with loyal English settlers. The settlers lived in constant fear. At least three times the town was plundered and burned. The most famous of the O'Mores was Owny MacRory O'More, chieftain of Leix until his death in 1600. He is best remembered for his defeat of English forces at "the Battle of the Plumes" (between Ballyknockan and Ballyroan) in 1600, and in the same year his capture of the earl of Ormond, commander of the English forces, whom he imprisoned inGortnaclea castle (nearAghaboe). "On the death of Owny... Leix was seized by the English; and they proceeded to repair their mansions of lime and stone". After the Battle of Kinsale in 1601 the Gaelic order collapsed. By 1610 the seven septs of Leix were transported to remote parts of Connacht and Munster.

The wars of the seventeenth-century engulfed the county. Roger O'More was one of the prime rebels in 1641. The revolt with its exaggerated stories of cruel slaughter of Protestants almost coincided with the start of the civil war in England. When Cromwell came to Ireland in 1649 he believed he was doing God's will by avenging the slaughter of 1641, and wished to restore order to unruly Ireland. The destruction of many of the tower houses was the work of Hewson and Reynolds, two of Cromwell's colonels. Woods were cleared, Roman Catholic landowners, their families and retainers were transplanted, while tenants and landless labourers who stayed behind were retained in their old capacity to serve the new Protestant settlers. The rest of the century saw further reduction of Roman Catholic landowning in the county reinforced by the Penal Laws.

Most of the eighteenth-century, was a period of relative calm, consolidation, enclosure and landscaping when many of the county's finest houses were built. The 1798 rebellion had sordid and sectarian aspects throughout the country. And the resultant demise of Henry Grattan's Parliament in 1800 saddened his last years in Dunrally near Vicarstown.

By the 1840's the population of the county was about three times its present number. Then came the Great Famine of 1845 - 9, and the county's three workhouses couldn't cope. Many small ruined houses especially in the Slieve Bloom Mountains bear testimony to this calamity. The rest of the nineteenth-century and the episodes which led to the foundation of the state in 1922 all had important places and participants in Laois.

Abbeyleix

Abbeyleix, 9 miles (14 km) south of Portlaoise, takes it name from a Cistercian abbey founded here in 1183 by Conor O'More. Today it is an attractive town with tree-lined streets. Golf (9), tennis, game fishing. In the grounds of the de Vesci demesne (which is not open to the public) is the tomb of a Laois chieftain, Malachi O'More.

Aghaboe

Home to St Canice's Monastery dating from the sixth century. Also of interest is Aghaboe House and Adam de Hereford's motte.

Ballaghmore

Ballaghmore Castle (1480) the chief seat of the Mac Gillpatricks (Fitzpatricks) Lords of Upper Ossory. Strategically placed on the Bealach Mor, the great road to Munster. Partially restored it in the 183Os. Ely was murdered by a tenant, and the castle was neglected. It was bought by the present owners in 1990 and restored. It has many very interesting features including a rare devilish sheila-an-gig on the front south facing wall, and outstanding views from the battlements. Visitors are given a guided tour, and are made very welcome. Nearby is a very small church, said to be a converted school house. It is open to the public all year. It is beautifully kept with tiny galleries, and a sexton's house at the back. North of the castle on Kyle Hill is the legendary Brehon's Chair.

Ballickmoyler

Located just outside Carlow town and on the N80 road to Portlaoise is Ballickmoyler. The river Barrow and nearby forest walks provide distractions for the nature lover.

Ballinakill

An example of a seventeenth-century market town. The ruins of Ballinakill Castle are of a late seventeenth-century castle built by the Dunnes (but never inhabited) on the site of one destroyed by Cormwellian troops under Fairfax. The configuration of streets round the large rectangular square is eighteenth-century. The town's entrance from Abbeyleix is marked by two trees known as Toll Trees where a toll was paid by visitors to the town. The town had important fairs, a brewery, woolen and tanning factories.

Ballyfin

As part of the Slieve Bloom Drive, Ballyfin is a much-visited little village. Nearing the village the mid-nineteenth century tower faces you; this is part of Ballyfin House, the grounds of which may be visited.

Borris In Ossory

Originally a cluster around the ruined fifteenth-century Fitzpatrick castle, the village grew along the eighteenth-century coach road and depended on the woolen trade. North of the village is Kyle or Cluain Ferta Molua, the site of a monastery founded by St. Lugaid or Molua who came from Limerick and died in 609. It was an important centre of learning in the seventh-century and home of Laidcend mac Baith-Bannaig whose works on biblical commentaries survive in manuscripts all over Europe.

Clonaslee

A largely nineteenth-century village. The Catholic church (1813) with its fine iron gates and gate-piers is oddly tucked in behind other buildings. The Church of Ireland church (1814), which dominates the village, has been purchased by the community and is being renovated as a visitors centre. Nearby are the ruins of Brittas House, an 1869 gothic mansion set in the remains of grounds still containing exceptional specimens of trees, shrubs and plants. About 3km south are the ruins of Castlecuffe, Sir Charles Coote's early seventeenth-century fortified dwelling.

Clonenagh

The most important monastery of ancient Leix. Founded by St. Fintan (d.603), its location on the Slige Dala (road of the assemblies) ensured its importance in early medieval Ireland. It enjoyed the patronage of the O'Mores, descendants of the Loigis kings, into the sixteenth-century. It was the monastic home of Oengus the Celi De (see Coolbangher). The Book of Leinster or Lebar na Nuachongbala started life here before moving to Oughaval near Stradbally. Today there are two graveyards the ruins of an early church, and a recently fallen penny tree.

Coolbanagher

The late eighteenth-century church of St. John the Evangelist, Coolbanagher is the only church built by Gandon. A cared-for church, it has a Dawson mausoleum by Gandon, and houses the original plans, a fifteenth-century font, and urns designed by Gandon but only recently moulded and inserted. Skirting the grounds of Shaen Castle are the ruins of Coolbanagher monastic settlement, immortalised by its association with Oengus the Celi De. As he travelled along the Slige Dala from Clonenagh on his way to Tallaght at the end of the eight-century he visited Coolbanagher. In the churchyard he had a vision of angels hovering over a freshly-made grave of a man who had venerated the saints: as a result he decided to compile his Felire or Calendar of Saints, which he completed in Tallaght, and which still survives as a major source for ancient Irish ecclesiastical history. The site is being renovated.

Donaghmore

Donaghmore is a wonderful little village and was the location for the film "All Things Bright and Beautiful". The village was originally a Norman fortification.

Durrow

Not to be confused with Durrow in Co. Offaly. Originally a Norman borough town. In the seventeenth century the Ormonds made it part of Kilkenny. It was returned to Laois in 1846 by Act of Parliament. It is a planned estate village, developed under the patronage of the Viscounts Ashbrook. Perhaps its finest feature is the suite of buildings around the Green under the gates and tastefully designed modern primary school and the important "castle" (1713-32) one of the last large pre-Palladian houses to be built in Ireland, and which was designed by its owner William Flower.

Mountmellick

Founded in the seventeenth century within a loop of the Owenass River. From the start a town of great industry and prosperity dominated by the enterprise of the Quaker community and later served by the Grand Canal. Its enterprise is still exemplified by the Mountmellick Development Association that commissioned the conversion of a grain mill into a Business Park/Enterprise Centre for industry wishing to locate in the town. The centre also houses a Quaker museum, and exhibitions. A pleasing town with a fine square, architecturally impressive houses, shops and ecclesiastical buildings.

Mountrath

At the foot of the mountains is the town of Mountrath, which also offers fishing and golf (9). At Borris-in-Ossory are the ruins of a castle built to defend the main highway into Munster (Ballaghmore Castle is now open to the public) and at Aghaboe are the ruins of a fourteenth-century Dominican abbey.

Portarlington

Founded in 1666 in a bend of the Barrow River by Sir Henry Bennett, Lord Arlington. After the Jacobite wars, the lands were given to General Rouvigney, Earl of Galway who established a thriving colony of French Huguenots in the town: separate chapels and schools were built for the English and French. Along with education (eventually 16 schools) the town became a centre for silversmiths and banking. Rouvigney sold his estate to the London Hollow Sword-blade Company, and from them it passed to the Dawson family until the late nineteenth-century. The town has Georgian, Huguenot and Victorian architecture of exceptional quality. An annual French Festival is held in the town.

Portlaoise

A prosperous commercial centre and principal town and administrative centre of the county, situated at the intersection of a number of national roads, and on the main railway between Dublin, Cork and Limerick. Until independence in 1922, it was known as Maryborough.

Originally designed as a military outpost for the defence of settlers, it was placed to the south-west of the Triogue River, and is first referred to in the Annals of the Four Masters in 1548 when it was known as the Campa of Leix. In the 1556 Act of Parliament, which claimed Leix and Offaly for the crown, the Fort Protector (as it was known) was named Mary Burgh. A settlement grew in and around the fort, and in 1570 the town received a charter of incorporation from Elizabeth I. In 1641, Maryborough was captured by Confederate troops, and then surrendered in 1649 to the Earl of Castlehaven. In 1650 the Puritan Colonel Hewson captured and almost entirely dismantled the fort. History continued to impinge upon the town, and throughout it had a significant role.

From the period of the fort, the visible remains are parts of the walls, a circular tower, possibly the old St. Peter's Church, the street pattern in the centre and a network of tunnels. The present town was laid out in the eighteenth-century, and the principal buildings date from then or later. Its many notable buildings include St. Peter's Church (partly designed by Gandon), the Court House (by Sir Richard Morrison) and its associated Old Goal, the late nineteenth-century gothic Methodist Church, the Munster and Leinster Bank (c. 1860) and St. Fintan's Hospital, (by Francis Johnston). Notable New buildings include the County Hall, headquarters of the Local Authority. On occasion conducted walking tours of the town can be arranged. Portlaoise Equestrian Centre is located on the outskirts of the town.

Rathdowney

Takes its name from the rath or ring fort, which until 1840 was at the end of the town square near the Church of Ireland church. It was a thirteenth century Norman manor. It developed as a town in the early nineteenth century with brewing as the main industry.

Rosenallis

Its origins are at least early Christian. There was a parochial church throughout the medieval period: recently a sheila-na-gig was discovered in the graveyard of the Church of Ireland church. Rosenallis grew as a village when like Mountmellick it became a Quaker colony and linen centre. Less than a mile out of the village on the Mountmellick road is a beautiful "Society of Friends Rosenallis Burial Ground".

Stradbally

The small town of Stradbally comes alive in the Summer with a Floral Festival when the streets are decked with flowers. It is one of the locations for the Laois Sculpture Trail which displays fine pieces of sculpture in 6 locations around the county. Stradbally is also home of the Steam Rally held every August Bank Holiday.

Timahoe

A village skirting a goosegreen. It takes its name from teach mo-Chua Mochua's House. St. Mochua established a monastery here in the seventh century. Burned in 1142, it was refounded by the O'Mores. The twelfth century Round Tower with its impressively decorated romanesque doorways is all that remains of the original monastic foundation. (It was climbed and safely descended on the outside in 1827 for a large wager by a Daniel Keane without any assistance). It came under the control of the Normans (Ballinclough motte and bailey nearby was built by Hugh de Lacy). There was a monastic community here as late as 1650 when the friars were murdered by Colonel Hewson's troops at a spot known locally as "Boher a wurther" or the murdering road.


	Laois Towns, Villages & Places of Interest	Print Page
	Source: "A Guide to the Heritage of Co. Laois" Dominated by the towering Rock of Dunamaise, it seems as if Laois has protected its secrets for generations. But historical treasures do exist. From the ancient Round Tower of Timahoe, the elegant magnificence of Emo Court or the wild and lonely isolation of the Slieve Bloom mountains, Laois boasts a diversity of remains and monuments to a varied and proud past. In the tranquil days of the early Christian era Laois was a haven of piety and sanctity, the silent ruins which today are scattered throughout the county, gentle but poignant reminders of the monastic era which originally shaped our Christian heritage. The sept or seven-fold system seems to have been a peculiarity of Gaelic civil life interwoven with ecclesiastical divisions and custom. An old common saying was 'he (she or it) is the talk of the seven parishes.' The 'Seven Laoises' was a lose description of both land divisions and clan divisions and the following names were generally recognised as the Seven Clans of Laois: O'Moore, O'Lalor, O'Doran, O'Dowling, O'Devoy (O'Deevy), O'Kelly and McEvoy. The Normans came amidst the din of military clamour but they were quickly absorbed by the local population and Laois continued throughout the medieval era as a Gaelic outpost on the borders of the Pale. However, the storm clouds were looming on the horizon. For even though the plantation of Queen Mary was easily brushed aside as the Great Hugh O'Neill marched south towards Kinsale the administrative framework had been established which allowed the modern county unit to emerge and which would allow future plantations to succeed. The 17th century saw the arrival of Cromwell and his troops and with his customary barbarity he proceeded to obliterate the progress of centuries. The Rock of Dunamaise was blown apart by rampaging Roundheads in 1650 and Laois, like the rest of the country, was quickly subjugated. The rich, fertile lands of Laois passed to the new colonists, the delightful demesne and impressive houses still in existence, statements of the affluence and prosperity which the county afforded. So come and explore, invite Laois to tell of its past, and discover a wealth of history and heritage from every generation of Ireland's past in this relaxing part of the Midlands. HISTORY Laois is fortunate in its historians, yet there is much still to be told. The Office of Public Works has identified more than one thousand sites and monuments in the county, but there are more. The earliest people in Laois were small bands of Mesolithic migratory hunters-fishers-gatherers who appeared about 8500 years ago. Then came Neolithic farmers who left at least a chert javelin head near Glenkitt in Slieve Bloom, and burial mounds in Clonaslee and Cuffsborough. In 2500 B.C. Bronze Age people arrived with new ideas and practices. They left examples of the fulacht fiadh or cooking place, wonderful weapons and ornaments, and hill forts such as Clopook and Monelly. Their megalithic monuments may include the Ass's Manger (possibly a wedge tomb near Luggacurren, a stone circle in nearby Monamonry ("Druid's Altar"), and the standing stone in the motte and ring fort at Skirke near Borris-in-Ossory. The pre-Christian Celtic Iron Age is one of bloody conquest by a succession of ruling dynasties. We are left with their ring barrows and forts, and a wealth of heroic literature originally in oral form. By the early sixth-century Christianity was well-established in the county. Most of the early churches and monastic foundations were of now rotted wood. "There is something of the melancholy of the human condition in these holy places, of the joy and sadness of brief life, of the search for meaning and a place... These are the most sacred places in Laois. Many of the monasteries, founded by genuinely holy men, became too wealthy to be ignored by predatory native warrior aristocracy and by marauding Vikings perhaps from the re-discovered longphort at Dunrally near Vicarstown. About 1175 - 1325 the Normans had control of the best land in the county. They founded boroughs such as Castletown, Dunamase, Durrow and Timahoe, and brought the feudal system, economic organisation, new farming, the rabbit, architecture, literature and learning. Left on the ground are mottes and baileys, manor farms, Lea Castle and Dunamase. Gaelic society survived in the bogs and forests and foothills of Slieve Bloom. The fourteenth-century brought a Gaelic revival and Anglo-Norman decline. Laoighseach O Mordha "violently ejected almost all the English from their lands and inheritance". The most impressive of the monuments that have survived from this violent Gaelic period are the tower houses or "castles". The revival of English power in the sixteenth-century was fiercely resisted by the O'Mores. Even so, in 1548 their lands were confiscated, and a "campa" was built at Portlaoise. In 1556 the "campa" known to the English as the Fort of Leix, or Fort Protector, was renamed Maryborough in honour of Queen Mary. Also in 1556 orders were issued for the plantation of Laois with loyal English settlers. The settlers lived in constant fear. At least three times the town was plundered and burned. The most famous of the O'Mores was Owny MacRory O'More, chieftain of Leix until his death in 1600. He is best remembered for his defeat of English forces at "the Battle of the Plumes" (between Ballyknockan and Ballyroan) in 1600, and in the same year his capture of the earl of Ormond, commander of the English forces, whom he imprisoned inGortnaclea castle (nearAghaboe). "On the death of Owny... Leix was seized by the English; and they proceeded to repair their mansions of lime and stone". After the Battle of Kinsale in 1601 the Gaelic order collapsed. By 1610 the seven septs of Leix were transported to remote parts of Connacht and Munster. The wars of the seventeenth-century engulfed the county. Roger O'More was one of the prime rebels in 1641. The revolt with its exaggerated stories of cruel slaughter of Protestants almost coincided with the start of the civil war in England. When Cromwell came to Ireland in 1649 he believed he was doing God's will by avenging the slaughter of 1641, and wished to restore order to unruly Ireland. The destruction of many of the tower houses was the work of Hewson and Reynolds, two of Cromwell's colonels. Woods were cleared, Roman Catholic landowners, their families and retainers were transplanted, while tenants and landless labourers who stayed behind were retained in their old capacity to serve the new Protestant settlers. The rest of the century saw further reduction of Roman Catholic landowning in the county reinforced by the Penal Laws. Most of the eighteenth-century, was a period of relative calm, consolidation, enclosure and landscaping when many of the county's finest houses were built. The 1798 rebellion had sordid and sectarian aspects throughout the country. And the resultant demise of Henry Grattan's Parliament in 1800 saddened his last years in Dunrally near Vicarstown. By the 1840's the population of the county was about three times its present number. Then came the Great Famine of 1845 - 9, and the county's three workhouses couldn't cope. Many small ruined houses especially in the Slieve Bloom Mountains bear testimony to this calamity. The rest of the nineteenth-century and the episodes which led to the foundation of the state in 1922 all had important places and participants in Laois. Abbeyleix Abbeyleix, 9 miles (14 km) south of Portlaoise, takes it name from a Cistercian abbey founded here in 1183 by Conor O'More. Today it is an attractive town with tree-lined streets. Golf (9), tennis, game fishing. In the grounds of the de Vesci demesne (which is not open to the public) is the tomb of a Laois chieftain, Malachi O'More. Aghaboe Home to St Canice's Monastery dating from the sixth century. Also of interest is Aghaboe House and Adam de Hereford's motte. Ballaghmore Ballaghmore Castle (1480) the chief seat of the Mac Gillpatricks (Fitzpatricks) Lords of Upper Ossory. Strategically placed on the Bealach Mor, the great road to Munster. Partially restored it in the 183Os. Ely was murdered by a tenant, and the castle was neglected. It was bought by the present owners in 1990 and restored. It has many very interesting features including a rare devilish sheila-an-gig on the front south facing wall, and outstanding views from the battlements. Visitors are given a guided tour, and are made very welcome. Nearby is a very small church, said to be a converted school house. It is open to the public all year. It is beautifully kept with tiny galleries, and a sexton's house at the back. North of the castle on Kyle Hill is the legendary Brehon's Chair. Ballickmoyler Located just outside Carlow town and on the N80 road to Portlaoise is Ballickmoyler. The river Barrow and nearby forest walks provide distractions for the nature lover. Ballinakill An example of a seventeenth-century market town. The ruins of Ballinakill Castle are of a late seventeenth-century castle built by the Dunnes (but never inhabited) on the site of one destroyed by Cormwellian troops under Fairfax. The configuration of streets round the large rectangular square is eighteenth-century. The town's entrance from Abbeyleix is marked by two trees known as Toll Trees where a toll was paid by visitors to the town. The town had important fairs, a brewery, woolen and tanning factories. Ballyfin As part of the Slieve Bloom Drive, Ballyfin is a much-visited little village. Nearing the village the mid-nineteenth century tower faces you; this is part of Ballyfin House, the grounds of which may be visited. Borris In Ossory Originally a cluster around the ruined fifteenth-century Fitzpatrick castle, the village grew along the eighteenth-century coach road and depended on the woolen trade. North of the village is Kyle or Cluain Ferta Molua, the site of a monastery founded by St. Lugaid or Molua who came from Limerick and died in 609. It was an important centre of learning in the seventh-century and home of Laidcend mac Baith-Bannaig whose works on biblical commentaries survive in manuscripts all over Europe. Clonaslee A largely nineteenth-century village. The Catholic church (1813) with its fine iron gates and gate-piers is oddly tucked in behind other buildings. The Church of Ireland church (1814), which dominates the village, has been purchased by the community and is being renovated as a visitors centre. Nearby are the ruins of Brittas House, an 1869 gothic mansion set in the remains of grounds still containing exceptional specimens of trees, shrubs and plants. About 3km south are the ruins of Castlecuffe, Sir Charles Coote's early seventeenth-century fortified dwelling. Clonenagh The most important monastery of ancient Leix. Founded by St. Fintan (d.603), its location on the Slige Dala (road of the assemblies) ensured its importance in early medieval Ireland. It enjoyed the patronage of the O'Mores, descendants of the Loigis kings, into the sixteenth-century. It was the monastic home of Oengus the Celi De (see Coolbangher). The Book of Leinster or Lebar na Nuachongbala started life here before moving to Oughaval near Stradbally. Today there are two graveyards the ruins of an early church, and a recently fallen penny tree. Coolbanagher The late eighteenth-century church of St. John the Evangelist, Coolbanagher is the only church built by Gandon. A cared-for church, it has a Dawson mausoleum by Gandon, and houses the original plans, a fifteenth-century font, and urns designed by Gandon but only recently moulded and inserted. Skirting the grounds of Shaen Castle are the ruins of Coolbanagher monastic settlement, immortalised by its association with Oengus the Celi De. As he travelled along the Slige Dala from Clonenagh on his way to Tallaght at the end of the eight-century he visited Coolbanagher. In the churchyard he had a vision of angels hovering over a freshly-made grave of a man who had venerated the saints: as a result he decided to compile his Felire or Calendar of Saints, which he completed in Tallaght, and which still survives as a major source for ancient Irish ecclesiastical history. The site is being renovated. Donaghmore Donaghmore is a wonderful little village and was the location for the film "All Things Bright and Beautiful". The village was originally a Norman fortification. Durrow Not to be confused with Durrow in Co. Offaly. Originally a Norman borough town. In the seventeenth century the Ormonds made it part of Kilkenny. It was returned to Laois in 1846 by Act of Parliament. It is a planned estate village, developed under the patronage of the Viscounts Ashbrook. Perhaps its finest feature is the suite of buildings around the Green under the gates and tastefully designed modern primary school and the important "castle" (1713-32) one of the last large pre-Palladian houses to be built in Ireland, and which was designed by its owner William Flower. Mountmellick Founded in the seventeenth century within a loop of the Owenass River. From the start a town of great industry and prosperity dominated by the enterprise of the Quaker community and later served by the Grand Canal. Its enterprise is still exemplified by the Mountmellick Development Association that commissioned the conversion of a grain mill into a Business Park/Enterprise Centre for industry wishing to locate in the town. The centre also houses a Quaker museum, and exhibitions. A pleasing town with a fine square, architecturally impressive houses, shops and ecclesiastical buildings. Mountrath At the foot of the mountains is the town of Mountrath, which also offers fishing and golf (9). At Borris-in-Ossory are the ruins of a castle built to defend the main highway into Munster (Ballaghmore Castle is now open to the public) and at Aghaboe are the ruins of a fourteenth-century Dominican abbey. Portarlington Founded in 1666 in a bend of the Barrow River by Sir Henry Bennett, Lord Arlington. After the Jacobite wars, the lands were given to General Rouvigney, Earl of Galway who established a thriving colony of French Huguenots in the town: separate chapels and schools were built for the English and French. Along with education (eventually 16 schools) the town became a centre for silversmiths and banking. Rouvigney sold his estate to the London Hollow Sword-blade Company, and from them it passed to the Dawson family until the late nineteenth-century. The town has Georgian, Huguenot and Victorian architecture of exceptional quality. An annual French Festival is held in the town. Portlaoise A prosperous commercial centre and principal town and administrative centre of the county, situated at the intersection of a number of national roads, and on the main railway between Dublin, Cork and Limerick. Until independence in 1922, it was known as Maryborough. Originally designed as a military outpost for the defence of settlers, it was placed to the south-west of the Triogue River, and is first referred to in the Annals of the Four Masters in 1548 when it was known as the Campa of Leix. In the 1556 Act of Parliament, which claimed Leix and Offaly for the crown, the Fort Protector (as it was known) was named Mary Burgh. A settlement grew in and around the fort, and in 1570 the town received a charter of incorporation from Elizabeth I. In 1641, Maryborough was captured by Confederate troops, and then surrendered in 1649 to the Earl of Castlehaven. In 1650 the Puritan Colonel Hewson captured and almost entirely dismantled the fort. History continued to impinge upon the town, and throughout it had a significant role. From the period of the fort, the visible remains are parts of the walls, a circular tower, possibly the old St. Peter's Church, the street pattern in the centre and a network of tunnels. The present town was laid out in the eighteenth-century, and the principal buildings date from then or later. Its many notable buildings include St. Peter's Church (partly designed by Gandon), the Court House (by Sir Richard Morrison) and its associated Old Goal, the late nineteenth-century gothic Methodist Church, the Munster and Leinster Bank (c. 1860) and St. Fintan's Hospital, (by Francis Johnston). Notable New buildings include the County Hall, headquarters of the Local Authority. On occasion conducted walking tours of the town can be arranged. Portlaoise Equestrian Centre is located on the outskirts of the town. Rathdowney Takes its name from the rath or ring fort, which until 1840 was at the end of the town square near the Church of Ireland church. It was a thirteenth century Norman manor. It developed as a town in the early nineteenth century with brewing as the main industry. Rosenallis Its origins are at least early Christian. There was a parochial church throughout the medieval period: recently a sheila-na-gig was discovered in the graveyard of the Church of Ireland church. Rosenallis grew as a village when like Mountmellick it became a Quaker colony and linen centre. Less than a mile out of the village on the Mountmellick road is a beautiful "Society of Friends Rosenallis Burial Ground". Stradbally The small town of Stradbally comes alive in the Summer with a Floral Festival when the streets are decked with flowers. It is one of the locations for the Laois Sculpture Trail which displays fine pieces of sculpture in 6 locations around the county. Stradbally is also home of the Steam Rally held every August Bank Holiday. Timahoe A village skirting a goosegreen. It takes its name from teach mo-Chua Mochua's House. St. Mochua established a monastery here in the seventh century. Burned in 1142, it was refounded by the O'Mores. The twelfth century Round Tower with its impressively decorated romanesque doorways is all that remains of the original monastic foundation. (It was climbed and safely descended on the outside in 1827 for a large wager by a Daniel Keane without any assistance). It came under the control of the Normans (Ballinclough motte and bailey nearby was built by Hugh de Lacy). There was a monastic community here as late as 1650 when the friars were murdered by Colonel Hewson's troops at a spot known locally as "Boher a wurther" or the murdering road.
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Laois Towns, Villages & Places of Interest

Source: "A Guide to the Heritage of Co. Laois"