Skip to content
Laois
County Laois · Leinster

About The Swan

The Swan is a village in County Laois, 27 km north of Kilkenny. It stands on the R426 and R430. The map gives it 457 buildings and 5 named streets, with 4 places named on them in 20 kinds, and 94 things to see in and around it. By the number of buildings on the map it is the 24th largest of the 36 settlements this site covers in County Laois.

Where
27 km north of Kilkenny, 79 km from Dublin
Position
52.8861° N, 7.1562° W
Roads
R426 and R430
Governed
Laois County Council, in the province of Leinster
On the model
457 buildings, 5 streets, 4 named places in 20 kinds
The Swan Inn in The Swan (village), County Laois, Ireland.
The Swan Inn in The Swan (village), County Laois, Ireland.·Sarah777, public domain via Wikimedia Commons
The Swan Inn
The Swan Inn·Sarah777, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

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 94 things to see

Getting around

By road

The map records the R426 and R430 running through The Swan.

By bus or train

2 lines call at 2 stops here. Plan a journey for the day and time you are going.

Schools and services

1 school or college on the map: The Swan National School.

Questions people ask

Where is The Swan?
In County Laois, in the province of Leinster, 27 km north of Kilkenny and 79 km from Dublin, on the R426 and R430.
How big is The Swan?
No census figure is on record for it here. On the map it is 457 buildings, 5 named streets and 4 named places, which by building count makes it the 24th largest of the 36 settlements this site covers in County Laois.
What is there to see in The Swan?
94 things the map records in and around it, the closest being Church Well, Tobernacrow and Clogh Castle (site of).
How do you get to The Swan?
2 bus and train lines call at 2 stops here in the published timetable, run by Slieve Bloom Coach Tours and TFI Local Link Laois Offaly.
Has County Laois grown or shrunk?
The census counted 153,930 people in the county in 1841 and 91,877 in 2022.
457
buildings on the model
5
named streets
4
named places
20
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. 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 The Swan·Getting to The Swan·County Laois