A house that took 70 years to finish
James Gandon, fresh from the Custom House and the Four Courts, set to work on Emo Court in 1790 for John Dawson, 1st Earl of Portarlington. He never saw it finished, and neither did his patron: the 1st Earl died in the 1798 Rebellion, and the house sat unfinished for decades. It reached its present form only in the 1860s, under the 3rd Earl, who added the rotunda and copper dome. Three earls and seven decades for one country house, which is why the Ionic portico at the front and the domed rotunda behind it don’t feel quite like the work of a single hand.
If you have to choose, the parkland is the better free hour and the house tour the better paid one. The 35-hectare grounds, a 20-acre lake and a mile-long avenue of giant sequoias cost nothing and stay open all year; the house is tour-only and shuts for the winter. Architecture-minded visitors should pay for the tour and time it for morning light in the rotunda. Everyone else can happily spend an afternoon on the lake circuit and never go indoors.
The Jesuit years
After the War of Independence the Portarlingtons left for England, and in 1920 the estate passed to the Irish Land Commission. The house stood empty until 1930, when the Jesuits bought it for £2,000 and turned it into St Mary’s novitiate. More than 500 novices trained here before the order left in 1969. They made real changes to the fabric, merging the rotunda and library into a chapel and storing dismantled marble columns in the basement, which is partly why so much of Gandon’s interior survived to be restored.
In 1969 the house was sold to Major Cholmeley-Harrison, a former London stockbroker, who brought in the architect Sir Albert Richardson to restore the house and gardens and reinstate the stored fragments. In 1994 he gave the whole estate to the Irish people, keeping private apartments until his death in 2008 at the age of 99. The Office of Public Works runs it now.
The house tour
The house is open by guided tour only, from 17 March to 4 November. The tour works through the ground-floor rooms, whose proportions are the point, from the octagonal entrance hall into the marble-clad rotunda under Gandon’s dome. It also drops into the basement, where the displays turn to the servants who kept the house running, and takes in the former Jesuit chapel. It’s the rotunda most people remember.
Gardens and lake
The grounds run to 35 hectares and hold more than a thousand different tree species, split between two named areas: the Clucker, thick with azaleas, rhododendrons and camellias under specimen trees, and the Grapery, laid out as a working arboretum with paths that open onto the lake and the Slieve Bloom foothills. The 20-acre lake is a designed feature rather than a natural one, and swans and ducks work its edges.
The approach is the mile-long Wellingtonia Avenue, planted with giant sequoias. Dogs are welcome on the parkland paths on leads, though not in the house. One genuine caveat with children: the lake is deep and unfenced, so keep them close along the water.
Practical information
Admission – The house tour is €8 for adults, €6 for seniors and groups, €4 for children and students, and €20 for a family. Parkland and gardens are free. Booking ahead is worth it in peak months.
Opening – The house is open 17 March to 4 November, daily 9am to 5pm. The parkland is open all year except Christmas Day, with hours that shift by season: roughly 8.30am to 4.30pm in the depths of winter, stretching to 9pm from May to August. Lock-up starts 30 minutes before closing.
Getting there – Emo Court is about 2.5km from Emo village and 7km from Portarlington railway station. From the M7 take Junction 15 and follow the signs; it’s also reachable on the N7 from Portlaoise. Free car parking on site.
Facilities & access – Paths are mostly loose gravel and only partially accessible, and the house entrance has stone steps, so it isn’t suitable for wheelchair users; assistance dogs are welcome throughout, and it’s worth ringing ahead on +353 57 862 6573 if you have specific access needs. There’s a gift shop and the CaToCa Tea Rooms in the former Dower House. In 2026 the estate drew €187,000 under Fáilte Ireland’s Regenerative Tourism and Placemaking Scheme, so expect ongoing improvements to visitor facilities.
Nearby
- Heywood Gardens – A formal garden and arboretum, about 25km away.
- Rock of Dunamase – Ruined medieval fortress on a rock with long views over the plain.
- Laois Heritage Trail – A free audio guide linking Emo Court with Aghaboe Abbey and other county landmarks.
The parkland is at its best twice a year: late spring, when the Clucker’s rhododendrons come out, and mid-autumn, when the sequoia avenue turns. Both are free, and both are quieter than a summer weekend.