Laois Nore Blueway

23/10/2025

Mountrath youth club are hosting spirit of Samhain at castletown slí Sibéal amenity area tickets available on Eventbrite.

11/07/2025

Next Sunday castletown tidy towns are hosting a walk and play with laois walks festival loads of workshops drumming, sketchbook making, clay workshop, metal leave making and forest walk great activities for all the family...

Get your tickets at eventbrite.com laois walks festival before there all gone...🚶‍♀️🪵👧👦🏻🎨🚸

https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/laois-walks-festival-4379743?fbclid=IwY2xjawK00HlleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETBCN2xFSDhERHlGNDl1VG02AR7ji0zsCE8v9Gohgtc-3tP_0x2TYe6IDN_TQo746nAs6LJaER8Lmxzne9CToA_aem_QYqyemTwsAA6obvonQrIxg

16/08/2022

** Excellent News **

Laois Nore Blueway committee are delighted to see that thanks to the support of many people, particularly the staff at Laois Co Co such as Ann Marie Maher - Sports & Leisure Officer, we have secured approval for a grant of €26,100 under the CLAR Grant programme.

This money will be used to sensitively create a sensory, biodiversity garden with picnic tables adjacent to Jackson's Bridge at Kilbricken. This will also be one of the first stops on the proposed water trail starting at Castletown Weir.

If you would like to become involved or find out more follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

Thank you for the continued support!

21/04/2022

Successful outing on Tuesday to collect rubbish, map distances between egress points and check on any remaining blockages.

Took approximately 3.5 hours to travel 21 KM which was much, much faster than previous runs and this was at a leisurely pace, collecting litter and taking our time. Even stopped for a while speaking to some employees working within the amazing De Vesci Woodlands.

The usable footballs that were collected will be passed on to a direct provision centre for use by residents there.

18/04/2022

Would any *experienced* kayakers like to join us tomorrow (Tuesday 19th) to do a kayak & litter pick for Laois Clean Up Week 2022?

Hoping to start at Castletown around 10:30am and get out at Watercastle Bridge towards the end of the route.

Comment below if you want to give a helping hand 😁

Clean Up Laois Week 2022   Clean Up Laois Week 18th to 22nd April 2022 After a two year break Spring Clean Up Week returns to Co. Laois. National Spring Clean has been operated by An Taisce since 1999 in partnership with the Department of Environment, Heritage & Local Government and local authoriti...

01/04/2022

Exciting times!

After reviewing some of the other big river projects in the Midlands and elsewhere, our chairman managed to get a great little design drawn up to show how the kayaking trail could look once all of the essential & recommended work is achieved.

Do you like it?! Please tell us what you think in the comments below. For now, this is an unofficial design that we would love to build on as the project progresses.

Thank you all in advance!

14/03/2022

The Nore Vision is a great collaborative project which aims to engage and connect communities along the Nore in Laois and Kilkenny with the river and its biodiversity. As part of their programme of events they are holding a series of walks and trips on various aspects on biodiversity in the two counties. See flyer for details of dates, venues and how to take part.

The Nore Vision is a great collaborative project which aims to engage and connect communities along the Nore in Laois and Kilkenny with the river and its biodiversity. As part of their programme of events they are holding a series of walks and trips on various aspects on biodiversity in the two counties. See flyer for details of dates, venues and how to take part. Highly recommended!

12/02/2022

Great event today led by the excellent Éanna Ní Lamhna & Des Finnamore. So much knowledge shared about the importance of bog habitat and conservation initiatives.

Yesterday (11/02/2022) we also attended a Nore Vision course in the Castletown community centre which was set up to assist voluntary groups like ours bring their plans to life. It was refreshing to see Laois getting some attention and some interesting conversations were had among the attendees.

Community engagement is such a vital part of the process so don't forget to keep an eye on the Nore Vision for upcoming events and courses in Laois in the coming months. There will be biodiversity walks in Mountrath and Dunmore wood along with more sessions aimed at assisting community groups get some traction and exposure for their visions of the Nore.

Exciting times ahead, we hope!

26/10/2021

We're delighted to announce that the Castletown river amenity has secured €20,000 as part of the Outdoor Recreational Infrastructure Scheme 2021.

This grant funding will be used to upgrade the existing walkway adjacent to the river Nore, contribute to the improvement of accessible access for more ages & abilities, and create a children's fairy trail similar to those seen elsewhere around the country.

The Laois Nore Blueway committee fully supports the improvement of the Castletown amenity to allow access by a wider range of ages and abilities and to see the area one step closer to a recognised recreational amenity and watersports base.

07/10/2021

It was excellent to do what's possibly the last Nore trip of the year, before temperatures get a bit too chilly.

To check out the progress on obstacle removal, we managed a shorter version of the route; from Waterloo Bridge on the Abbeyleix - Ballacolla road, to the Watercastle exit point just before Dunmore Demesne.

We were delighted to see some more large blockages removed inside the De Vesci estate.

As always, if anyone has any questions or wants to reach out to us just give us a message on here and we shall do our best to assist.

~ Safe & happy paddling ~

21/07/2021

Following the recent heatwave, a member of the Castletown Tidy Towns committee has informed us of severe littering around the weir and picnic area - a popular recreational spot and the proposed start point for the Laois Nore Blueway.

It goes without saying that littering of all kinds is unacceptable, so we'd like to reach out to all our followers and friends to request that they when visiting this beautiful location.

Whilst raising awareness and tackling this behaviour is crucial, we realise that energy is best spent taking action, so a couple of us will attend this evening to clean up for those who refuse to do so themselves.

6:30pm

Anyone local is more than welcome to join for even 5 minutes, and cool down for a swim afterwards if they fancy.

Who knows, we may even embarrass some of the litter louts to join in 😆

Thank you all