Ballinakill

A seventeenth-century market town. The ruins of Ballinakill Castle are of a late seventeenth-century castle destroyed by Cromwellian troops. The configuration of streets around the large rectangular square is eighteenth-century. The town’s entrance from Abbeyleix is marked by two trees known as toll trees where a toll was paid by visitors to the town. The town had important fairs, a brewery, woollen and tanning factories. At Ballinakill there is excellent fishing for roach, perch and tench in Gill’s Lough and one of the finest of Ireland’s great gardens. Heywood Gardens with its lakes, woodlands and architectural features is well worth a visit. Its formal gardens were designed by the world-famous Sir Edwin Luytens and were probably landscaped by Gertrude Jekyll.