County Laois - Environment

1. Walks

Go to ALL Walks in Laois

The Slieve Bloom Way

Situated close to the geographical centre of Ireland, this circular route takes the walker through the wild and mysterious Slieve Bloom Mountains - an area unknown to many visitors and almost so to many Irish people. The walker is taken on a pleasurable trip past remarkable deep glens, rock out-crops, waterfalls, and lofty summits which have a strange brooding personality of their own. On some days it is possible to see the highest points of each of Ireland's four provinces. Route Details: Glenbarrow, Monicknew, Glendine East, Forelacka, Glenkeen, Glenbarrow. Total Distance: 77km/48 miles. Longst Stage: Forelacka to Glenkeen - 19km/12 miles. Highest Point: Glendine Gap - 460m/1510ft.

Show me all the details for The Slieve Bloom Way

2. Gardens

Go to ALL Gardens in Laois

Heywood Gardens

Landscaped in the eighteenth-century and completed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1912 at a cost of £250,000. 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. It is open to the public and is operated by the Office of Public Works.

Show me all the details for Heywood Gardens

3. Parks

Go to ALL Parks in Laois

Heywood

The garden is reached at the end of a long avenue that winds through an elegant landscape park laid out during the 1770s in the romantic-poetic tradition. visitors enter the garden through a series of small compartments or 'garden rooms' planted with herbaceous plants and delimited by clipped yew hedges. From here a curving staircase leads down into a large elliptical garden where three terraced borders drop to a central oval pond encircling a large stone fountain.

Show me all the details for Heywood

4. Gardens

Go to ALL Gardens in Laois

Emo Court

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, inspired by the Roman Pantheon, must surely be one of the most impressive rooms in Ireland. The circular space is lit by a lantern in the coffered dome, which rests on the gilded capitals and Sienna marble pilasters.

The house is surrounded by extensive parklands with formal lawns, a lake and woodland walks.

Facilities:
Toilets, car/coach park.

Show me all the details for Emo Court

Contact Reservations Toll-Free now at:
IRL - 00 800 369 87412
FR - 00 800 369 87412
DE - 00 800 369 87412
NL - 00 800 369 87412
UK - 0 800 783 8359
US - 1 888 827 3028
Canada - 1 866 433 9999
Rest of the World - International code followed by 066 9792093
Lines Open 9am to 8pm(Mon to Fri), 9am to 6pm(Sat) Irish times
Email:goireland@gulliver.ie.

GoIreland.com operated by Gulliver Ireland, FEXCO Center, Langford Street, Killorglin, Co.Kerry, Ireland