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SPINK

CO. LAOIS · IE

Spink
An Spinc, Co. Laois

The Ireland's Ancient East
STOP 06 / 06

An Spinc · Co. Laois

A scattered south-Laois parish, a Gaelic football pitch, and a fourteen-year row about a power station.

Spink barely qualifies as a village in the picture-postcard sense. It is a south-Laois parish near the Kilkenny border, threaded along the R430, and what holds it together is a church, a Gaelic football pitch and a national school rather than a row of shops. If you drive through expecting a square and a couple of pubs you will be through it before you notice you arrived.

What put Spink in the newspapers was not heritage but a fight. In 2009 the Electricity Supply Board and EirGrid proposed a major 400 kV substation at Coolnabacky, near Ratheniska, as part of the Laois-Kilkenny Reinforcement project. Spink, Ratheniska and Timahoe formed the RTS Substation Action Group and said no - their worry was transformer oil leaking into an aquifer that supplies drinking water for thousands. The row ran for fourteen years, through An Bord Pleanala and the High Court. In the end the village lost: work resumed on the substation in 2024 and a community benefit fund was divided up among the parishes that had fought it.

Come here if you want to understand how a scattered rural parish organises itself when something it cannot stop is being built on its doorstep - and what it looks like afterwards. Otherwise Spink is a place you pass through on the way to Abbeyleix or Durrow, both of which have the shops, the pubs and the history that Spink does not.

Coords

52.9000° N, 7.2333° W

01 / 06

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 name

An Spinc - the pointed rock.

Spink sits in south Laois near the Kilkenny border, strung along the R430 between Abbeyleix and Durrow country. It is a rural parish more than a street - a church, a pitch, a national school and the houses in between. Do not expect a village centre, because there is not really one.

The letter → 02 The row

Fourteen years against the ESB - and they lost.

From 2009 the Ratheniska, Timahoe and Spink (RTS) Substation Action Group fought a 400 kV substation at Coolnabacky near Ratheniska. It went to An Bord Pleanala and the courts. The station was built anyway; works resumed in 2024. The fight is the most documented thing about the place.

Stories & lore →

02 / 06

Stories & lore.

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

RTS Substation Action Group, 2009-2024

The substation row

In 2009 the ESB and EirGrid earmarked Coolnabacky, near Ratheniska on the edge of the Spink parish, for a 400 kV gas-insulated substation - the heart of the Laois-Kilkenny Reinforcement project, eventually costed at around 110 million euro. Residents of Ratheniska, Timahoe and Spink formed the RTS Substation Action Group and fought it for fourteen years, arguing among other things that transformer oil could leak into the aquifer that supplies drinking water across the area. The campaign went to An Bord Pleanala and then to the High Court. The community lost: construction resumed in 2024, and EirGrid set up a community benefit fund that paid out to Spink, Timahoe, Ballinakill and other nearby parishes in 2024. It is the longest and best-documented chapter in the village's recent history, and a fair number of locals will still tell you exactly how it went.

The Catholic parish church

St Lazerian's church

Spink's Catholic church is dedicated to St Lazerian (Laserian, or Molaise) - a seventh-century saint associated with Leighlin across the Carlow border, whose name turns up across the south Leinster parishes. The church and its graveyard are the fixed point of the parish; the old burial records are among the few documents that reach back beyond living memory here. There is no grand abbey or castle to photograph - this is a working country church rather than a heritage site - but it is the building the parish is named around and the place most of its history is buried.

The football club

Spink GFC

Spink is a Gaelic football parish - Spink G.F.C., playing out of the Spink Community Field. It is a junior-grade club rather than a county power, turning out in the lower divisions of the Laois adult football league against neighbours like Emo, Ballylinan and Mountmellick. In a parish with no real centre, the pitch does the job a square does in a bigger village: it is where the place gathers, especially on a championship Sunday. If you want to find Spink actually being Spink, find out when they are at home.

03 / 06

Things to do outside.

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

The parish roads There is no waymarked trail at Spink. What there is, is quiet south-Laois country lane - low hedges, working farms, the odd long view toward the Kilkenny hills. Park sensibly near the church, walk a loop on the back roads, and watch for farm traffic. This is walking for the quiet of it, not for a named summit or a heritage card.

Your own loopdistance

1 hour plustime

04 / 06

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The south-Laois country is greenest and the lanes are dry. As good a time as any to pass through.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long evenings and the football season in full swing at the Community Field. The best chance of catching the parish gathered for a match.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Championship time for the club, and the harvest light on the back roads. Quiet and pleasant.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days and little to do indoors - there is no pub or cafe to shelter in. Better to base yourself in Abbeyleix or Durrow and treat Spink as a daytime drive-through.

◐ Mind yourself

05 / 06

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

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

Looking for a village centre

Spink is a scattered parish, not a street. There is no square, no row of pubs, no main-street cafe. If you arrive expecting one you will be disappointed and through the place in two minutes. Adjust expectations: this is church, pitch, school and farmland.

A meal or a bed in Spink itself

There is no hotel, no restaurant and no verifiable pub trading in the village. For food, drink and a bed, Abbeyleix and Durrow are both a short drive and both have the proper village infrastructure Spink lacks.

The substation as a tourist sight

The Coolnabacky substation is an industrial installation near Ratheniska, not a viewing point. The story of the fourteen-year campaign against it is genuinely interesting; the fenced compound itself is not something to drive out to look at.

Getting there.

By car

On the R430 in south Laois. Abbeyleix is the nearest larger village to the north; Durrow and the M8 are a short drive south. Portlaoise, the county town, is roughly 20 km north. A car is effectively essential here.

By bus

There is no significant scheduled bus service through Spink itself. The nearest reliable connections are at Abbeyleix and Portlaoise; Local Link Laois-Offaly covers parts of rural south Laois, but check current timetables before relying on it.

By train

No station. The nearest railway station is Portlaoise on the Dublin-Cork main line, about 20 km north, with frequent services to Dublin Heuston.