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heritage · Saturday 15 August 2026 · Various 
Emo Court Basement 'Servants Quarters' Tour
At Emo Court and Estate · Emo, Co. Laois
At Emo Court and Estate · Emo, Co. Laois
Most visitors to Emo Court walk the grand period rooms upstairs - the drawing room, the library, the rotunda with its soaring dome - and leave without ever seeing where the real work happened. This free guided tour during National Heritage Week takes you below stairs to the basement that kept the whole house running: kitchens, pantries, storage rooms, a servants’ hall, and the stone-flagged passageways connecting them all. It is a rare chance to see spaces that were off limits to the public until 2025, when a careful OPW restoration brought them to life with period tools, utensils, and authentic domestic detail. Good for adults and older children with a genuine interest in social history.
The tour is basement-only and guided, which means a knowledgeable guide rather than a self-guided wander. You are walking through rooms designed purely for function - no decorative plasterwork, no mahogany, just stone floors and practical workrooms. The contrast with the rooms above is striking and deliberate. The story told here is of the servants who kept John Dawson’s household running: the cook, the butler who guarded the strong-room, the maids who moved invisibly between service corridors and upstairs rooms. James Gandon - the architect who designed the Custom House and the Four Courts in Dublin - was commissioned to build Emo Court in 1790. The house took roughly 70 years to complete, so the domestic arrangements you see below stairs reflect the full Victorian-era operation of the estate at its working peak. Bat habitats were a live conservation consideration during the restoration, so you may hear about that too.
Emo is a small village in County Laois, about 10 km north of Portarlington and 12 km south-east of Portlaoise. By road, take the M7 motorway and exit at Junction 15 (Portlaoise South / Stradbally), then follow the R419 towards Emo - the estate entrance is well signposted. There is ample free parking on site. No direct bus service runs to Emo village itself; the nearest Bus Eireann stops are in Portarlington or Portlaoise, from where a taxi or car is needed for the final stretch.
The 250-acre Emo Court estate is worth at least an hour on its own - formal gardens, a lake walk, and woodland trails are all freely accessible. The village of Emo is quiet, but Portarlington is close by for food and coffee after the tour. There is more to see in Emo and across Co. Laois.
Heading to Emo Court and Estate in Emo? Laois has plenty more to see. Read the Emo area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.