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. 11 DRIVING TOURS 11 DRIVING TOURS Laois From Aghaboe continue along the R434 to Durrow: For further information or a copy of Laois The great oak forests that once covered Heritage Trail booklet contact: Laois Tourism, ancient Ireland gave Durrow its name, which Lyster Square, Portlaoise, County Laois. comes from Daurmagh Ua nDuach, or the s +353 (0)57 8664132 Oak Plain of the people known as the Uí [email protected] Duach. The way Durrow looks today is largely www.laoistourism.ie or www.laois.ie/heritage due to the Flower Family, Viscounts Ashbrook, who gained ownership of the town in the early Donaghmore 1700s. They built Castle Durrow and granted This tour follows the Heritage Trail of Laois permits for many of the fine Georgian and and starts in Donaghmore. Visitors to the Victorian houses that still line Durrow’s streets. Donaghmore Workhouse and Agricultural Museum see the rooms of an Irish workhouse From Durrow take the N77 to Attanagh: almost exactly as they appeared in the late The Irish Fly Fishing and Game Shooting 1800s. The Donaghmore Workhouse was built Museum in Attanagh explores 300 years of to house the most desperate people of County hunting and fishing in Ireland. It is a treat for Laois. Paid for by a tax on local property anyone interested in country life. The museum owners, the workhouse was deliberately was founded in 1986 by Walter Phelan, who made as unattractive as possible so that its comes from a family devoted to fishing. He has only residents would be those who had lost all restored and adapted a traditional farmhouse hope. to house a collection of vintage rods, reels, guns, tackle, tools and specimens of birds and From Donaghmore take the R435 to Borris-in- fish. Ossory, turning right along the N7, followed by the R434 to Aghaboe: From Attanagh travel to Ballinakill Aghaboe Abbey was founded in the sixth Heywood Gardens is the site of two garden century by St. Canice. The abbey grew into types: the great park created by Frederick a major centre of learning, commerce and Trench in the late 1700s and the small agriculture. The astronomer St. Virgilius, also interlocked formal gardens created by Sir known as St. Feargal, was its abbot in the 700s Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll in the before he left Ireland, going on to become early 1900s. Inspired by Trench’s Grand Tour Bishop of Salzburg. After the original monastery of Europe, he moved hills, dug lakes, planted burned in 1234, it was rebuilt as an Augustinian trees and placed follies. In the early 1900s, priory. Today a Church of Ireland, which dates Colonel Hutchenson Poe hired the eminent from the 1700s, stands where that priory once architect Sir Edwin Lutyens to create formal stood. gardens around Heywood House. 2 11 DRIVING TOURS From Ballinakill take the R432 to Abbeyleix: From Abbeyleix take the R432 through The original town of Abbeyleix grew up Ballyroan and travel to Timahoe: near the River Nore, on the site of an early An extraordinary carved doorway makes Christian abbey. The town developed under this the most elegant round tower in Ireland. the protection of a twelfth century Cistercian Carvings of human heads, with flowing monastery. When the de Vesci family acquired beards and moustaches, decorate the main Abbeyleix in 1750, they decided that the town entrance, about five metres from the ground. would have to move. The de Vescis levelled the Smaller carvings decorate a second storey old town of Abbeyleix and moved its people window. No one knows why the monks at to a new planned town. Abbeyleix prospered Timahoe carved such a beautiful doorway. in its new location. Over the next century the They may have used it to display a sacred relic main industries included flour mills, a brewery, to pilgrims, or the elegant decoration could and a factory that made carpets used all over reflect the monastery buildings that have the world, including on the luxury liner Titanic. disappeared from this site. 3 11 DRIVING TOURS From Timahoe travel to Stradbally: From the Rock Of Dunamase continue on the The Stradbally Steam Museum celebrates N80 followed by the N7 to Emo: the steam engines that once ruled Ireland’s Emo Court is a country villa designed by railways, built its roads and worked its farms. architect James Gandon (1743-1823), best Inside the museum, visitors can see a variety of known for his great public buildings, including steam-driven engines. The collection includes the Custom House and the Four Courts in the Mann Steam Cart, built in 1918. This small Dublin. The house is a magnificent example steam traction engine cleared and ploughed of the neo-Classical style, reflecting the land. The Fowler, another steam traction architecture of ancient Greece and Rome. engine, built in 1936, was used in roadworks The house is surrounded by beautiful gardens and to power stone crushers. and parkland which were first laid out in the 18th century and contain formal lawns, a lake From Stradbally take the N80 towards and woodland walks with many very fine trees Portlaoise to the Rock of Dunamase: and shrubs. Stunning views of the surrounding countryside make the towering Rock of Dunamase a From Emo travel initially on the R422 towards strategic place to build a fortress. Through Mountmellick, turning onto the R419 to the centuries, warriors have fought to control Portarlington: this limestone outcrop. The first known In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, settlement on the rock was Dun Masc, an Portarlington was the Paris of the Midlands, a early Christian settlement that was pillaged in place where French, rather than Irish or English, 842 by the Vikings. Today the ruins on the Rock was spoken on the streets. French Huguenots, of Dunamase are managed by the State. escaping persecution in their native land, Archaeological excavation and conservation shaped the culture and the architecture of work by the Office of Public Works have this bustling Midlands town. Today visitors can ensured that the Rock of Dunamase will survive view houses built in the Huguenot style on for further generations to explore. French Street and Patrick Street. 4 11 DRIVING TOURS From Portarlington take the R423 to From Mountmellick travel to Mountrath taking Mountmellick: the N80 initially followed by the R423. In Once known as the Manchester of Ireland, Mountrath take the R440 towards Camross: Mountmellick is a town of fine buildings and the Poet’s cottage is a replica thatched cottage home of a uniquely Irish textile art, Mountmellick which gives visitors a sense of what daily life Work. The foundation of the town was laid by must have been like for most people in rural members of the Society of Friends, also known Ireland in the 1800s. Ireland’s cottages evolved as Quakers. In 1659, William Edmundson settled over centuries. While each community had its in Mountmellick and started a tannery. Other own variations, most cottages were one storey Quakers set up malting, brewing, spinning high and one room wide. The windows and and weaving enterprises. Weaving became doors were located on the side walls, with a one of the town’s major industries. By the mid- chimney stack along the roof. The walls of the 1700s, Mountmellick was a leading centre cottage were built of local stone or mud; the of textile production in Ireland. Today, a fine roof was thatched with reeds or straw. community-run museum displays examples of Mountmellick Work. 5 11 DRIVING TOURS Longford From Ballinamuck travel on the R198 to Drumlish This tour starts from Ballinamuck in County The village of Drumlish is west of a ridge Longford on the R198: of low hills running north-eastwards from Ballinamuck is a small picturesque village Newtownforbes to Arva in County Cavan. A in County Longford close to the Cavan and famous episode of the Land War took place Leitrim borders.