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Laois
County Laois · Leinster

About Portlaoise

Portlaoise is a town in County Laois, 43 km north of Kilkenny. It stands on the M7, N77 and N80. The map gives it 12,282 buildings and 264 named streets, with 478 places named on them in 145 kinds, and 163 things to see in and around it. By the number of buildings on the map it is the largest of the 36 settlements this site covers in County Laois.

Population
23,494, as the map records it
Where
43 km north of Kilkenny, 78 km from Dublin
Position
53.0340° N, 7.3001° W, 139 m above sea level
Area
12.1 km²
Roads
M7, N77, N80, R425, R426, R445, R945 and L2112
Governed
Laois County Council, in the province of Leinster
On the model
12,282 buildings, 264 streets, 478 named places in 145 kinds
A view of Dunamaise Arts Centre.
A view of Dunamaise Arts Centre.·瑞丽江的河水, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Portlaoise in order

5 of the places on this map carry a date on Wikidata, running from 1830 to 2000. That is not a history of Portlaoise, and it is not written as one: it is the order in which the things still standing were built, which is the part a map can actually tell you.

18302000Portlaoise PrisonMidlands Prison
The nineteenth century
The twentieth century

County Laois since 1841

Every census of the county, which is the only way to see what happened to rural Ireland: the fall from the Famine runs for a century, and the recovery is recent.

153,93044,59591,87718412022

Source: Central Statistics Office, table F1001 'Population at Each Census', read through the PxStat API, read 2026-09-20.

What to see

Closest to the centre first, with how far each one is.

All 163 things to see

Getting around

By road

The map records the M7, N77, N80, R425, R426, R445, R945 and L2112 running through Portlaoise. 29 car parks on the map.

By bus or train

There is a station in the settlement. 24 lines call at 89 stops here. Plan a journey for the day and time you are going.

Schools and services

13 school or colleges on the map.

Questions people ask

Where is Portlaoise?
In County Laois, in the province of Leinster, 43 km north of Kilkenny and 78 km from Dublin, on the M7, N77 and N80.
How big is Portlaoise?
No census figure is on record for it here. On the map it is 12,282 buildings, 264 named streets and 478 named places, which by building count makes it the largest of the 36 settlements this site covers in County Laois.
What is there to see in Portlaoise?
163 things the map records in and around it, the closest being Portlaoise Courthouse, Old County Gaol and St. Peter's Church.
How do you get to Portlaoise?
24 bus and train lines call at 89 stops here in the published timetable, run by Bus Éireann, City Direct and Dublin Coach. There is a station in the settlement itself.
Has County Laois grown or shrunk?
The census counted 153,930 people in the county in 1841 and 91,877 in 2022.
12,282
buildings on the model
264
named streets
478
named places
145
kinds of place

Buildings, streets, places, roads and position are OpenStreetMap, counted by this site rather than quoted from anywhere. Population, elevation, area and twinning are structured claims on Wikidata (item Q822871). County population is the Central Statistics Office. Journeys are the National Transport Authority’s published timetable. Every sentence on this page is written from those numbers; none of it is copied from a description of the place.

Back to Portlaoise·Getting to Portlaoise·County Laois