town information laois

Mainistir Laoise is the gaelic for Abbeyleix, which is located on the River Nore. The town is know as this as there is an old 12th century Cistercian abbey located here.  You can learn about the history and development of the town within the heritage centre.

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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 Cromwellian troops under Fairfax. The configuration of streets around 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, wo...