Things to do in Portlaoise
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Portlaoise
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Late spring is the best all round window, with the Slieve Bloom Walking Festival, bluebells at Glenbarrow and long days.
High summer peaks for gardens and the bog, with the Laois Walks Festival in July and Durrow's Scarecrow Festival at the turn of August.
Electric Picnic at the end of August fills every bed in the county and closes roads around Stradbally for the weekend.
Autumn is the culture season, with the Dunamaise in full swing, Halloween Howls in October and the Leaves Festival in November.
Winter is quiet and cheap, best for spa, golf at The Heath and pubs, with short days and trimmed hours at seasonal sights.
January is the plainly worst month, darkest and quietest with little compensating beyond price.
What's on
- Electric Picnic 28 to 30 August
Ireland's largest music festival at Stradbally Hall brings an estimated 80,000 people and books out the whole county.
- Slieve Bloom Walking Festival May
Guided walks across the Slieve Bloom Mountains at the start of the best walking season.
- Old Fort Quarter Festival June
A summer weekend of music and heritage events in Portlaoise's Old Fort Quarter.
- Durrow Scarecrow Festival late July to early August
Hundreds of straw figures fill Durrow village, the best week to base there.
- Halloween Howls late October
A comedy festival bringing national names to Portlaoise and the Dunamaise Arts Centre.
- Leaves Festival November
A festival of writing and music centred on the Dunamaise Arts Centre.
Best things to do in Portlaoise
Rock of Dunamase
A ruined Norman fortress on a limestone rock above the Laois plain, free to explore with a full panorama from the great hall.
Timahoe Round Tower
One of Ireland's finest round towers, with a carved Romanesque doorway, in a quiet monastic churchyard south of Portlaoise.
Donaghmore Workhouse & Agricultural Museum
A largely intact Famine workhouse whose guided tour makes 19th century Ireland impossible to forget.
Dunamaise Arts Centre
The town's cultural pick, a 240 seat theatre with cinema, free gallery and cafe, and something on most weeks.
Ballykilcavan Brewery
A farm brewery on an estate farmed since 1639, brewing with its own barley and offering guided tours with tastings.
The Heritage Spa
A large thermal spa at The Heritage resort in Killenard, the luxury day out of the Portlaoise area.
The Fisherman's Thatched Inn
A thatched inn from the 1600s packed with memorabilia, where the owner teaches visitors to pour their own Guinness.
Fort Protector
The surviving remains of the 16th century fort Portlaoise grew around, a quick stop that explains the town's layout.
Where to stay in Portlaoise
Portlaoise town centre
practical all round base, rail arrivals
The county's widest choice of beds, food and pubs in one walkable knot, plus the station.
Killenard
golf, spa and weddings
A small village built around The Heritage resort, self contained for a resort stay.
Ballyfin and the Mountmellick fringe
ultra luxury country house stay
Quiet villages with almost no visitor beds beyond Ballyfin Demesne, the famous exception.
Abbeyleix
walkers and garden visitors
A designated heritage town with the bog walk at its edge and Heywood Gardens five minutes away.
Durrow
slow food and walking weekends
The prettiest village base in the county, a Georgian square with good cafes and the Leafy Loops walks.
Think twice about
- M7 Junction 17 / Midway motorway strip
A service station and food court cluster built for passing traffic, with nothing walkable, nothing local and no evening at all.
- Kilminchy / Dublin Road suburban fringe
Modern housing estates with no visitor reason to sleep there, since you drive past the town centre to reach anywhere you want to be.
Best restaurants in Portlaoise
Blake's Restaurant at The Heritage
The formal dining room at The Heritage, serving modern Irish cooking in a smart, quiet resort setting.
Kelly's Steakhouse
The town's celebration steakhouse inside the Midlands Park Hotel, built around Irish beef and family capable menus.
Treacy's Pub & Restaurant
A golden thatched pub restaurant from 1780, still family run, serving big portions of home style cooking all day.
Mayur Indian Restaurant
The town's most loved restaurant by rating, an Indian dining room on Main Street with attentive service.
Bowe's Foodhall & Cafe
A food hall and cafe on Durrow's square famed for its breakfast board, brisket sandwiches and serious baking.
Square - Speciality Coffee Bar - Portlaoise
The town's coffee pick, a speciality bar on Main Street with locally roasted beans and much loved cakes.
Kavanaghs Bar & Venue
The longest family run pub in Portlaoise, with pizza, local craft beer and a top small venue for comedy and live music.
Outdoor things to do in Portlaoise
Glenbarrow Waterfall Loop
The signature Slieve Bloom walk, climbing through broadleaf woodland beside the river to a three tiered waterfall.
Monicknew
Gentle looped forest walks along the Little Brosna River at Monicknew, with a picnic spot and stone stacking riverbank.
Ridge of Capard
A viewing platform loop on the ridge with the Slieve Blooms' one big panorama over the Laois and Kildare plain.
Emo Court
A James Gandon mansion in free parkland with a lake walk, woodland paths and a famous avenue of giant redwoods.
Heywood Gardens
Lutyens formal gardens with a sunken walled garden and pool, set in 50 acres of parkland with lakes and follies.
Abbeyleix Bog Project
A community protected raised bog opened by boardwalk loops, a rare chance to stand in this threatened habitat on dry feet.
The Heritage Golf Resort
A Ballesteros and Howes championship parkland course at Killenard, one of Ireland's leading inland courses.
The Heath Golf Club
An inland links style course on heathland where golf has been played since 1889, playable practically all year.
Best hotels in Portlaoise
Midlands Park Hotel
The town's flagship hotel, a renovated four star with a 22 metre pool, spa treatments and Kelly's Steakhouse in house.
Ivyleigh House
A Georgian guesthouse by Church Street famed for its cooked to order breakfast and old school Irish hospitality.
Maldron Hotel Portlaoise
A modern chain hotel by the M7 with pool and family rooms, usually the town's lowest full service rates.
The Heritage
A top end four star resort wrapped around the Ballesteros golf course, with a large spa and course view rooms.
Ballyfin Demesne
A restored Regency mansion of 20 rooms on a 614 acre demesne, one of Ireland's most celebrated luxury hotels.
Abbeyleix Manor Hotel
A family run hotel beside the Abbeyleix Bog boardwalk, with food all day and a cafe for the post walk coffee.
Castle Durrow
An early 18th century country house hotel with famous gardens and a well regarded dining room, a short walk from Durrow village.
Is Portlaoise expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | €70 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | €140 a person |
| Splurge | €380 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Dunamaise Arts Centre: a few days ahead
- Ballykilcavan Brewery: a few days ahead
- The Heritage Spa: weeks ahead
- The Heritage Golf Resort: weeks ahead
- The Heritage: weeks ahead
- Ballyfin Demesne: months ahead
- Castle Durrow: weeks ahead
- Blake's Restaurant at The Heritage: a few days ahead
- Electric Picnic weekend needs accommodation booked months ahead, or stay away entirely.
- Heritage spa treatments and Saturday tee times need days to weeks, and Ballyfin needs months.
- Ballykilcavan tours are pre-book only on set days, and Castle Durrow's dining room can close to non residents on wedding days.
- Kelly's and Mayur on Friday and Saturday nights, and Treacy's for Sunday lunch, genuinely need reservations.
Is Portlaoise safe?
- Lock the car at trailheads and keep valuables out of sight, as the Glenbarrow and Dunamase car parks are isolated.
- Expect slippery rock at Dunamase and Glenbarrow's falls, and fast changing weather on the Slieve Bloom ridge.
- The town centre is loud rather than dangerous around pub closing on Friday and Saturday nights.
- Emergency number is 112.
Portlaoise travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- The town centre alone sold as a day out, all retail and a motorway food court lunch, is the worst version of Portlaoise.
- Emo Court's cafe draws recurring complaints, so picnic by the lake or eat back in town.
- The Ridge of Capard in fog is a wet walk with no view, so swap to Glenbarrow's woods on a grey day.
- Older guides still recommend a walled garden cafe in Portlaoise that current listings mark as permanently closed.
Getting around Portlaoise: public transport and more
- Portlaoise is about an hour from Dublin by the M7, or 55 to 65 minutes by frequent direct trains from Dublin Heuston.
- By train you can do the town and, by short taxi, Dunamase, but Emo, Timahoe, the Slieve Bloom trailheads, Heywood, the bog and the golf resorts are effectively car only.
- By car everything is within 40 minutes, and parking at Dunamase, Emo and Heywood is free.
- Taxis need booking, not hailing, so book the ride home when you book a rural pub table.
Who Portlaoise suits
| Solo travellers | OK |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Good |
| Couples | Good |
| Bachelor parties | OK |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | Good |
Make Portlaoise your trip
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