tourist attractions laois

Donaghmore Museum, is an old workhouse, built as a result of the Great Famine. About 1,200 people were doomed to be paupers and forced to take refuge there.

It has been restored by Avonmore and now houses an agricultural museum. The kitchen, dormitories and waiting hall have all been restored and the museum is open to the public during the summer months....

Ballaghmore Castle (1480) was the chief seat of the Mac Gillpatricks (Fitzpatricks) Lords of the Upper Ossory. It's strategically placed on the Bealach Mor, the great road to Munster. Partially destroyed by Cromwellians in 1647 it came into possession of the Cootes who leased it to the Elys. Richard Ely, financed by a hoard of gold found on his land, partially restored it in the 1830s. Ely was murdered by a tenant, and the castle was neglected.

It was bought by the present owners...

Heywood Gardens were landscaped in the eighteenth-century and completed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1912. They consist of formal gardens, lakes, woodland, and architectural features such as gothic gates and artificial ruins embellished with vandalised medieval pieces such as the window taken from Aghaboe Abbey.
The garden is under the care of Dúchas, the Heritage Service. The garden is open all year round, free of charge, with access at the weekends through the turnstyle entrance. Wheelch...

A magnificent neo-classical house designed by James Gandon in 1790, on the same magnificent scale as his Custom House, for John Dawson 1st Earl of Portarlington. The construction begun in 1790 and additions were made at different stages. The fashionable English architect Lewis Vulliamy added the north front portico with four giant ionic columns in 1834. The present owner Mr. Chomeley-Harrison has magnificently restored and refurbished Emo Court.

The domed rotunda at Emo Court, insp...