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Laois
County Laois · Leinster

About Rathdowney

Rathdowney, Ráth Domhnaigh in Irish, is a town in County Laois, 32 km north-west of Kilkenny. It stands on the R433, R435 and L1537. The map gives it 2,119 buildings and 40 named streets, with 66 places named on them in 42 kinds, and 118 things to see in and around it. By the number of buildings on the map it is the 7th largest of the 36 settlements this site covers in County Laois.

Where
32 km north-west of Kilkenny, 104 km from Dublin
Position
52.8554° N, 7.5838° W, 100 m above sea level
Roads
R433, R435, L1537, L1557, L15571, L1558 and L1596
Governed
Laois County Council, in the province of Leinster
On the model
2,119 buildings, 40 streets, 66 named places in 42 kinds
Donaghamore Workhouse, County Laois, near to Donaghmore and Bealady Cross Roads, Laois, Ireland. Her Majesty's facility for survivors of the Great Famine opened in 1853.
Donaghamore Workhouse, County Laois, near to Donaghmore and Bealady Cross Roads, Laois, Ireland. Her Majesty's facility for survivors of the Great Famine opened in 1853.·sarah777, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The Square, Rathdowney, Co. Laois, circa 1900 (8166240548)
The Square, Rathdowney, Co. Laois, circa 1900 (8166240548)·National Library of Ireland on The Commons, no restrictions via Wikimedia Commons

Rathdowney in order

4 of the places on this map carry a date on Wikidata, running from 1382 to 2005. That is not a history of Rathdowney, 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.

13822005Aghaboe AbbeyKelly O'Daly Park
The fourteenth century
The fifteenth century
The nineteenth century
The twenty-first 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 118 things to see

Getting around

By road

The map records the R433, R435, L1537, L1557, L15571, L1558 and L1596 running through Rathdowney.

By bus or train

1 line calls at 2 stops here. Plan a journey for the day and time you are going.

Schools and services

4 school or colleges on the map: Convent National Schools, Saint Fergal's College, Rathdowney National School and Scoil Bhríde.

Questions people ask

Where is Rathdowney?
In County Laois, in the province of Leinster, 32 km north-west of Kilkenny and 104 km from Dublin, on the R433, R435 and L1537.
How big is Rathdowney?
No census figure is on record for it here. On the map it is 2,119 buildings, 40 named streets and 66 named places, which by building count makes it the 7th largest of the 36 settlements this site covers in County Laois.
What is there to see in Rathdowney?
118 things the map records in and around it, the closest being B2JL, Donaghmore Ringfort and Donaghmore Castle ruins.
How do you get to Rathdowney?
1 bus and train line calls at 2 stops here in the published timetable, run by Slieve Bloom Coach Tours.
Has County Laois grown or shrunk?
The census counted 153,930 people in the county in 1841 and 91,877 in 2022.
2,119
buildings on the model
40
named streets
66
named places
42
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 Q2566185). 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.

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