Borris, An Bhuiríos, Co. Carlow

An Bhuiríos · Co. Carlow

An estate town built by the heirs of the last King of Leinster. They still live in the house.

Borris is one long Main Street running north-south between Mt Leinster and the River Barrow, and most of what matters here happens behind the granite gates at the top of it. Borris House - the seat of the MacMurrough Kavanaghs - sits on the site of an older castle, rebuilt in Tudor-revival style in the 1810s. The family who live there are direct descendants of Diarmait Mac Murchada, the man who in 1169 invited the Normans into Ireland and changed everything that followed. They are still there. That is the story of this town.

The most extraordinary of them was Arthur MacMurrough Kavanagh, born in 1831 without arms or legs. He was strapped onto a horse as a child and went on to hunt, fish, sail to India, become a magistrate, and sit as MP for Carlow and then Wexford. The portraits in the house show a man with a beard and a hard, unbothered stare. The story is so unlikely that visitors arrive expecting a Victorian myth and leave realising it is all documented.

Below the house, the village does its work. A handful of pubs along Main Street, a Georgian hotel halfway down, the granite viaduct walking you out of the village to the south. The South Leinster Way and the Barrow Way both pass through, which means a steady summer trade in walkers and not much in the way of coaches. It is a quieter Carlow than people expect - Carlow being a county people don't expect much from at all, which is part of the appeal.

Come for a weekend in late spring, ideally not the festival weekend unless you booked months ago. Walk the viaduct before breakfast. Get into the house if it is open. Eat in the Step House. Drink in the Green Drake. Drive out to St Mullins on a Sunday for the round tower and the river. That is Borris, and it is enough.

Population

~700

Walk score

One long Main Street, ten minutes end to end

Founded

Planned estate town, 18th century

Coords

52.6020° N, 6.9263° W

01 / 09

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The house

Borris House - and the family who never left.

The MacMurrough Kavanaghs trace their line to Diarmait Mac Murchada, the last King of Leinster. The current generation still lives in the house. House and gardens open seasonally; check before you go.

Stories & lore → 02 The viaduct

Sixteen granite arches over the Mountain River.

Built c. 1860 for the Bagenalstown-Borris line. The trains stopped in 1931 for passengers, 1963 for freight; the viaduct didn't. Walk under it from the village; walk over it on the South Leinster Way.

Walks & outings → 03 The festival

A literary weekend in a private house.

The Borris House Festival of Writing & Ideas runs the second weekend in June. Marquees on the lawn, novelists in the drawing room, a small town doubling its population for three days. Book early or don't bother coming.

When to go →

02 / 09

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

O'Sheas

Locals, daytime trade

Pub & grocery

The classic Irish pub-and-shop. Loaf of bread on one side, pint on the other. The shop end shuts in the evening; the pub end carries on. A real one of these, not a re-creation.

The Green Drake Inn

Walkers, weekenders

Pub & food

Named after the mayfly hatch on the Barrow. Food on most days, a fire in winter, a small back room that does duty as the music room when there is music. Reliable rather than thrilling, which is the right register for Borris.

M. J. Doyle

Quiet, conversational

Old-style village pub

The kind of pub where the television is off and the regulars know your business by your second pint. No food, no fuss. A short pint and a long talk.

Step House Bar

Smarter, dinner crowd

Hotel bar

In the Step House Hotel halfway down Main Street. Cocktails, wine list, the dressed-up end of a Borris night. Worth a drink before dinner; not where you finish the evening.

03 / 09

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
The Step House Hotel restaurant	Hotel restaurant	€€€	The destination dinner in Borris. Two AA rosettes for years. The dining room is the old Georgian drawing room of the house. Booking essential at weekends; do not turn up in walking boots.
The Green Drake Inn	Pub food	€€	Pub plates done properly - chowder, a good burger, a Sunday roast that does what a Sunday roast should. The right lunch after a viaduct walk in the rain.
Sha-Roe Bistro (Clonegal)	Bistro, Michelin Bib Gourmand, 15 min east	€€€	Not in Borris but in Clonegal village. Henry Stone and Stephanie Barrillier's bistro in a 17th-century cottage, holding a Michelin Bib Gourmand. Booked weeks ahead. Worth the drive if you have a free Saturday and someone else driving home.
Borris Coffee House	Café & lunch	€	Day-only, soup-and-sandwich and a slice of cake. The flat white is real. A good base for a morning before the house opens.

04 / 09

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
The Step House Hotel	Country-house hotel	Georgian house on Main Street, twenty-odd rooms, run by the Coady family for two decades. The reason most people staying in Borris are staying in Borris. Book a room facing the back if you can - the view is the gardens, not the street.
Lorum Old Rectory	Country-house B&B	Eight kilometres south of the village in a Victorian rectory. Bobbie Smith ran it for years and it is still run in that key - four rooms, single dinner sitting, conversation expected. Quiet, expensive, worth it.
Kilgraney Country House	Country house, 20 min	Just outside Bagenalstown. Bryan Leech and Martin Marley's place - herb garden, organic dinners, the kind of weekend where you don't get back into the car. Closed parts of the year; check ahead.
A cottage on the Barrow	Self-catering	Several lock-keeper's cottages and small cottages along the river rent through the usual sites. Cheaper than the hotels, no breakfast, the river ten metres from the door.

05 / 09

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

The king who invited them in

Diarmait Mac Murchada

In 1166 Diarmait Mac Murchada - King of Leinster, dispossessed, furious - sailed to Bristol looking for help. He found a cousin of Henry II called Strongbow and offered him a daughter and a kingdom. The Normans arrived in Wexford in 1169. Eight hundred years of Irish history followed from that decision. His descendants, the MacMurrough Kavanaghs, still live in Borris House at the top of the village. The story doesn't end; it just gets quieter.

1831-1889

Arthur the armless MP

Arthur MacMurrough Kavanagh was born without arms or legs. His mother had him strapped to a horse; he learned to ride, hunt, fish, sail, paint, and write a hand most people would envy. He travelled across Persia and India in his twenties, was elected MP for Wexford in 1866 and Carlow in 1868, and managed his estate himself for decades. The portraits at Borris House show him bearded, upright, looking through you. Every Victorian cliché about pluck falls short of him.

c. 1860, sixteen arches

The viaduct

The Bagenalstown and Wexford Railway crossed the Mountain River at Borris on a sixteen-arch granite viaduct, built around 1860 when the Bagenalstown-Borris section opened. The line carried passengers until 1931 and freight until 1963; then it closed, and the rails came up, and the viaduct stayed. It is the largest stone railway viaduct in Ireland still standing without trains. You can walk over it on the South Leinster Way and stand a hundred feet above the river thinking about Victorian engineering and how little of it has fallen down.

Since 2012

The Festival of Writing & Ideas

In 2012, Hugo Jellett and Vivienne Guinness started a small literary festival in the grounds of Borris House. It now runs the second weekend of June and pulls in international novelists, historians and journalists for three days of talks in marquees on the lawn. For a weekend the population of the town more than doubles. Outside that weekend, the lawn is empty and the village is itself again. Both versions are worth seeing; only one of them needs booking in March.

06 / 09

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

The Borris Viaduct walk From the village down to the viaduct, under or over depending on which path you take, and back along the Mountain River. The signed route uses the old railway line. Do it before breakfast if you can.

4 km returndistance

1 hourtime

South Leinster Way (Borris stage) Borris is a waymarked stop on the South Leinster Way. The southern stage to Graiguenamanagh runs along the Barrow towpath and is flat, leafy and entirely manageable. Walk it one way and bus or taxi back.

24 km to Graiguenamanaghdistance

Full daytime

Barrow Way (Borris-St Mullins) Down the towpath through Ballyteigelea Lock to St Mullins - the medieval monastic site at the tidal limit of the Barrow. Round tower, ruined church, a holy well. The pub at St Mullins (Mullichain Café) does coffee and lunch. Walk one way, taxi back if your legs give in.

18 km returndistance

5 hourstime

Mt Leinster The big one - 795m, Carlow's highest point. Drive to the Nine Stones car park on the saddle and walk up the service road to the summit transmitter. Not technical; very exposed. Cloud sits on it for half the year. Pick a clear day and the view runs from the Wicklow Mountains to the Comeraghs.

8 km returndistance

3-4 hourstime

07 / 09

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Gardens at Borris House open from March, lambs on the slopes of Mt Leinster, the Barrow towpath at its greenest. The festival hasn't happened yet and the village is quiet.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

The second weekend of June is the Festival of Writing & Ideas - book months ahead for that or stay clear. The rest of summer is steady walker traffic, long evenings, gardens at full tilt.

◐ Mind yourself

Autumn

Sep-Oct

The Blackstairs in colour, the Barrow low and brown, the hotel restaurant at its best with game on the menu. The right time of year to be here.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Borris House is shut, the festival is six months away, and Mt Leinster is in cloud. The Step House and the pubs carry on. A short, fireside kind of weekend; don't expect a programme.

◐ Mind yourself

08 / 09

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Turning up festival weekend without a booking

Every room within twenty miles is gone by April and the village has more cars than it has parking spaces. Either book in March or come a different weekend.

Driving Mt Leinster in cloud

The road to the Nine Stones is narrow and exposed and the summit is featureless when the cloud is in. There is no view to reward the drive. Wait for a clear morning.

The Cliffs-of-Moher-style coach swing through

Borris does not work as a forty-minute photo stop. The house, the viaduct and the towpath each want an unhurried hour. Stay a night or skip it.

Assuming the house is always open

Borris House is a private home that opens for tours seasonally and for the festival. Outside those windows the gates are shut. Check the website before you build the day around it.

Getting there.

By car

Dublin to Borris is 1h 45m via the M9 to Carlow town and the R705 south. Kilkenny is 35 minutes; Wexford is an hour.

By bus

Local Link 882 runs Carlow town to Borris via Bagenalstown a few times daily. Slow and useful for one direction; check timetables before you commit.

By train

No station in Borris - the line closed in 1963. Nearest is Bagenalstown (Muine Bheag) on the Dublin-Waterford line, 12km north. Then taxi or local bus.

By air

Dublin Airport is 2 hours by car. Cork and Shannon are around 2.5.

Next on the tour

Co. Kilkenny

Graiguenamanagh

Down the Barrow towpath. Duiske Abbey, a working river, two good pubs and the best stretch of the South Leinster Way.

Co. Carlow

St Mullins

Medieval monastic site at the tidal limit of the Barrow. Round tower, ruined church, a small pub by the river. Sundays are the day.

Co. Carlow

Bagenalstown

Walter Bagenal's planned town on the Barrow, 12 km north. Has the train station Borris hasn't, a Georgian square, and Lord Bagenal's Inn for dinner.