Overview
Twice a year this small Laois town is swamped: once by the August steam rally, once by Electric Picnic. The rest of the time Stradbally is a quiet one-street place, which is more or less what its Irish name, An Sráidbhaile, means. Its population is 1,404 (2022 census), and it sits on the N80 between Portlaoise and Carlow, about 12km east of Portlaoise. What holds it together is a long attachment to steam-powered machinery and the estate on its doorstep, Stradbally Hall, where both of its big weekends take place.
History and the Gordon Bennett Cup
The settlement is old. A sixth-century monastery was founded at nearby Oughaval by Colman mac ua Laoise, a disciple of St Columba, and Franciscans came to the area in 1447. The Cosby family have held Stradbally Hall since the reign of Edward VI; the present house dates from the mid-nineteenth century, an enlargement of a Georgian house built in 1772.
Its odder claim to fame is motoring. On 2 July 1903 the Gordon Bennett Cup, the first international motor race held in Ireland, ran through Stradbally on a circuit that took in Kilcullen, Kildare, Monasterevin, Athy, Castledermot and Carlow. The Belgian driver Camille Jenatzy won in a Mercedes. Because Britain couldn’t race on public roads at home, the event came to Ireland, and the British team ran in shamrock green as a nod to the host country, the shade that became British racing green. A marker in the town centre records the day.
Steam heritage and the woodland railway
The Irish Steam Preservation Society keeps a museum on the town’s Green: traction engines, steam rollers and agricultural machinery, much of it operational and demonstrated by volunteers. Among the collection is a black 1912 steam engine that once worked in the Guinness brewery. Out at Stradbally Hall, the Stradbally Woodland Railway runs a 3ft narrow-gauge line through the estate woodland. It opened in 1969, grown from a temporary track laid for the 1968 steam rally, and was Ireland’s first volunteer-run heritage railway. It runs on bank holiday weekends throughout the year, with steam and diesel engines pulling vintage carriages.
One honest caveat: outside the bank holiday weekends there isn’t a reliable published timetable for either, so a random weekday visit can find little open. Come on a bank holiday, or come for the rally.
The two big weekends
On the August bank holiday weekend, Stradbally Hall hosts the National Steam Rally, the oldest in Ireland: hundreds of traction engines, threshing demonstrations and vintage displays, with camping from Friday to Tuesday and the smell of hot oil and coal smoke over the whole field. It’s the town at its most characterful.
In late August or early September the same grounds become Electric Picnic, which started small in 2004 and grew into a multi-stage music and arts festival with comedy, food markets and a devoted following. It’s a cashless event and it sells out, so plan tickets and accommodation well ahead.
Around the town
Between events, Stradbally is a place for a slow half-hour rather than a full day. The Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart anchors the streetscape, with an older Church of Ireland building nearby, and traditional stone houses and pubs that have served local farmers for generations. The Laois Heritage Trail and Laois Monastic Trail both pass close by, linking Oughaval Woods and the ruins of early monastic sites.
Getting there and practical tips
Stradbally is reached by car on the N80, with direct access from the M7. Bus Éireann runs between Portlaoise and Stradbally, and Portlaoise railway station gives national rail connections for anyone coming from Dublin or Cork.
- Check event dates well ahead, especially for the August steam rally and Electric Picnic, both of which sell out or use timed entry.
- The town is a handy base for the Slieve Bloom Mountains, the Rock of Dunamase, and nearby Ballintubbert Gardens and Clonaslee.
Time a visit for a bank holiday weekend and you’ll catch the railway steaming and the museum demonstrating; come at the August rally and you’ll see why a town of 1,404 people keeps the oldest steam gathering in the country going.