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Offaly
County Offaly · Leinster

About Birr

Birr, Biorra in Irish, is a town in County Offaly, 66 km north-west of Kilkenny. It stands on the N52, N62 and R439. The map gives it 3,099 buildings and 87 named streets, with 135 places named on them in 79 kinds, and 55 things to see in and around it. By the number of buildings on the map it is the third largest of the 37 settlements this site covers in County Offaly.

Population
3,300, as the map records it
Where
66 km north-west of Kilkenny, 113 km from Dublin
Position
53.0961° N, 7.9109° W
Roads
N52, N62, R439, R440, R489, L1077, L4028 and L70065
Governed
Offaly County Council, in the province of Leinster
On the model
3,099 buildings, 87 streets, 135 named places in 79 kinds
Emmet Square, Birr
Emmet Square, Birr·Gordon Hatton, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The Square, Parsonstown (Birr, Co Offaly) (23380992132)
The Square, Parsonstown (Birr, Co Offaly) (23380992132)·Robert French, no restrictions via Wikimedia Commons

Birr in order

3 of the places on this map carry a date on Wikidata, running from 1250 to 1980. That is not a history of Birr, 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.

12501980Leap CastleSt. Brendan's Community School Birr
The thirteenth century
The nineteenth century
The twentieth century

County Offaly 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.

146,85751,30883,15018412022

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 55 things to see

Getting around

By road

The map records the N52, N62, R439, R440, R489, L1077, L4028 and L70065 running through Birr. 4 car parks on the map.

By bus or train

9 lines call at 7 stops here. Plan a journey for the day and time you are going.

Schools and services

3 school or colleges on the map: St. Brendan's Community School Birr, Scoil Náisiúnta Iosep Naofa and Saint Brendan's National School.

Questions people ask

Where is Birr?
In County Offaly, in the province of Leinster, 66 km north-west of Kilkenny and 113 km from Dublin, on the N52, N62 and R439.
How big is Birr?
No census figure is on record for it here. On the map it is 3,099 buildings, 87 named streets and 135 named places, which by building count makes it the 3th largest of the 37 settlements this site covers in County Offaly.
What is there to see in Birr?
55 things the map records in and around it, the closest being Emmet Square, Birr Little Theatre and James Lalor Cooke.
How do you get to Birr?
9 bus and train lines call at 7 stops here in the published timetable, run by Bus Éireann, Kearns Transport and TFI Local Link Laois Offaly.
Has County Offaly grown or shrunk?
The census counted 146,857 people in the county in 1841 and 83,150 in 2022.
3,099
buildings on the model
87
named streets
135
named places
79
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 Birr·Getting to Birr·County Offaly