Guide The MidlandsIreland.ie brand promotes awareness of the Midland Region across four pillars of Living, Learning, Tourism and Enterprise. MidlandsIreland.ie Gateway to Tourism has produced this digital guide to the Midland Region, as part of suite of initiatives in line with the adopted Brand Management Strategy 2011- 2016. The guide has been produced in collaboration with public and private service providers based in the region. MidlandsIreland.ie would like to acknowledge and thank those that helped with research, experiences and images. The guide contains 11 sections which cover, Angling, Festivals, Golf, Walking, Creative Community, Our Past – Our Pleasure, Active Midlands, Towns and Villages, Driving Tours, Eating Out and Accommodation. The guide showcases the wonderful natural assets of the Midlands, celebrates our culture and heritage and invites you to discover our beautiful region. All sections are available for download on the MidlandsIreland.ie Content: Images and text have been provided courtesy of Áras an Mhuilinn, Athlone Art & Heritage Limited, Athlone, Institute of Technology, Ballyfin Demense, Belvedere House, Gardens & Park, Bord na Mona, CORE, Failte Ireland, Lakelands & Inland Waterways, Laois Local Authorities, Laois Sports Partnership, Laois Tourism, Longford Local Authorities, Longford Tourism, Mullingar Arts Centre, Offaly Local Authorities, Westmeath Local Authorities, Inland Fisheries Ireland, Kilbeggan Distillery, Kilbeggan Racecourse, Office of Public Works, Swan Creations, The Gardens at Ballintubbert, The Heritage at Killenard, Waterways Ireland and the Wineport Lodge. Individual contributions include the work of James Fraher, Kevin Byrne, Andy Mason, Kevin Monaghan, John McCauley and Tommy Reynolds. Disclaimer: While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy in the information supplied no responsibility can be accepted for any error, omission or misinterpretation of this information. Where such are brought to our attention future guides will be amended accordingly. 10 TOWNS & VILLAGES 10 TOWNS & VILLAGES Mountmellick for its work (embroidery) while Laois the estate towns of Abbeyleix and Durrow have their own unique character. A county of rich contrast, Laois is a place for people who want a different experience of If you love nature, you’ll love Laois. Walking, Ireland. A meeting point for ancient heritage cycling, horse-riding, golfing, fishing, polo, and contemporary culture, for rural tranquillity trekking, canal-cruising, it’s all to be discovered and busy towns and villages, for sophisticated in the beautiful and peaceful countryside. luxury and rustic simplicity, Laois calls out to The Slieve Blooms are undoubtedly one of people who want something authentic and Ireland’s most extraordinary mountain walking truly out of the ordinary. experiences. This mountain range, teeming with wildlife and fascinating ecology, offer a Many beautiful heritage sites have been range of activities. restored for the public to enjoy such as Emo Court and Gardens, Timahoe Round Tower, Fishing is one the best kept secrets in Laois. Aghaboe Abbey and Heywood Gardens. The rivers Nore and Barrow run through Laois Another real treasure is the Rock of Dunamaise, as well as the Grand Canal and the many which is one of the great monuments and lakes dotted throughout the county. Take a fortresses of Ireland and offers breathtaking visit to the Irish Fly-Fishing and Game Shooting views of the county. There are reminders Museum in Attanagh which is the only one of in Portarlington of its Huguenot past, in its kind in Europe. 2 10 TOWNS & VILLAGES for roach, perch and tench in Gill’s Lough and one of the finest of Ireland’s great gardens. Heywood Gardens with its lakes, woodlands and architectural features is well worth a visit. Its formal gardens were designed by the world- famous Sir Edwin Luytens and were probably landscaped by Gertrude Jekyll. Abbeyleix A fine planned estate town designated one of Ireland’s Heritage Towns, noted for the quality of their preserved historic buildings. Established by Viscount de Vesci, it is well laid out with fine town houses, public buildings and vernacular houses dating to different periods from the mid-eighteenth century. Perhaps most notable are the Market House (1906), Hibernian Bank (c. 1900), Catholic Church (Hague, 1895), Church of Ireland Church (Wyatt, rebuilt 1865) and Abbeyleix National School. The award- winning Heritage House Interpretive Centre is worth a visit. Other attractions within the town include: Sextons House, Abbey Sense Gardens, Morrissey’s Pub and the library. Ballinakill A seventeenth-century market town. The ruins of Ballinakill Castle are of a late seventeenth- century castle destroyed by Cromwellian troops. The configuration of streets around the large rectangular square is eighteenth- Castletown century. In 1182 Hugh de Lacy built a castle here for Robert de Bigarz, and it became the centre The town’s entrance from Abbeyleix is marked of an important Norman borough. Only by two trees known as toll trees, where a toll fragments of the castle remain. The village was paid by visitors to the town. The town had itself is built around a triangular fair green. important fairs, a brewery, woollen and tanning South of the village in Churchtown are the factories. At Ballinakill there is excellent fishing ruins of a medieval church. 3 10 TOWNS & VILLAGES Donaghmore Originally associated with an early medieval church, and then with an early Norman fortification. It became an extensive industrial complex in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It has attractive buildings and two thriving pubs overlooking a river and an old bridge. A short distance northwest is the headquarters of Donaghmore Co-operative, once a workhouse, and now a museum which is open to the public during the summer months and on request during the remainder of the year. During the Great Famine, some 10% of the local population sought refuge here. Now restored, Durrow visitors can see the original dormitories, kitchen The Anglo-Normans founded a borough on and waiting hall, plus the agricultural museum the Erkina River in the thirteenth century. The also housed here. town prospered, and early in the eighteenth century, Colonel William Flower acquired the estate and built Castle Durrow, the magnificent classical mansion. Later ennobled as the Viscounts Ashbrook, the family designed the village which has retained much of its early appearance, with fine eighteenth and nineteeth century houses. The houses are built around an open green and the splendid gates of the castle open onto it. The Erkina River, offers great fly fishing for trout and occasional salmon. All around the village are old woods. The wood was part of the old estate and was planted primarily to provide cover for game birds. The nearby ‘Leafy Loop’ - a 20 km series of way-marked walking routes around the town – features riverside paths, leafy forest tracks, open farmland, numerous historic sites and a rich variety of flora and fauna. 4 10 TOWNS & VILLAGES Mountmellick Founded in the seventeenth-century within a loop of the Owenass River, Mountmellick has always been a town associated with great industry and prosperity and in the late eighteenth century became known as the ‘Manchester of Ireland’. From the start the town was dominated by the enterprise of the Quaker Community and later served by the Grand Canal. Mountmellick Development Association commissioned the conversion of a grain mill which houses a Quaker Museum, where the main focus is to conserve and display original pieces of Mountmellick work (embroidery) of which the town is renowned; and to protect the memory of Mountmellick’s rich Quaker industrial past. The Heritage Trail is a pleasure to follow. It is a pleasing town with a fine square, Emo architecturally impressive houses, shops and Emo Court, one of the greatest houses and ecclesiastical buildings gardens in Ireland, designed by James Gandon and its nearby Coolbanagher Church provide an unforgettable day excursion. It took eighty years to finish the building of Emo Court. The house stood empty and decaying for ten years in the 1920s then became a seminary for the Jesuits, who made some alterations. In 1969 the Demesne was bought by Major Cholmley-Harrison, who restored the house to its nineteenth century grandeur and renovated the magnificent gardens. The latest phase began in 1994 when the owner presented the house and grounds to the people of Ireland. Now in State hands, both house and gardens are beautifully cared for and the house, with its magnificent rooms, is open for guided tours throughout the summer. 5 10 TOWNS & VILLAGES Mountrath Portlaoise Mountrath probably derives its name from a The principal town of Laois, Portlaoise is fort in Redcastle about 1.6km on the eastern a vibrant town. An invasion of the region side of the present town. The Irish name is Móin under Queen Mary of England led to the Ratha - meaning “the fort in the bog.” On a development of a settlement here, which very early map of Mountrath from 1659, the they called Maryborough. It retained that town is designated by a few houses situated name until it reverted to Portlaoise following on a stream - the White Horse River. By that independence. Recent years have seen its date the town was over thirty years old as it transformation into an exciting and rapidly was founded in 1628 by Charles Coote. By growing centre, with fascinating local sources 1750 the town was a thriving industrial place of crafts & food and the splendid Dunamaise with its own woollen and linen industries, Arts Centre. ironworks, grain and rape mills and a little later its own brewery and distillery. Mountrath Twenty minutes or less in any direction brings was also an important market town with its a wealth of opportunities; with numerous golf beautiful market house, dating from the early- clubs, equestrian centres and horse-drawn eighteenth century, dominating the square. caravans and possibilities for trekking in the The town is now mainly agricultural and an Slieve Bloom Mountains.