Vicarstown

Vicarstown sits where the R427 crosses the Barrow Line, and the canal is the reason most visitors come. Barrowline Cruisers, a family firm, hires out narrowboats and barges from its base here, and boats line the banks through the village. From Vicarstown you can head north towards Lowtown and the Grand Canal main line, or south through Athy onto the livelier river. The Vicarstown Inn is just up from the water, and the Church of the Assumption is worth a look; the village also hosts the only parkrun in Co. Laois. Walkers can follow the Barrow Way 10.5 km to Athy, past a bench quoting the poet Patrick Kavanagh and an aqueduct over the Stradbally River; north of the village the canal crosses the Glasha River on the Grattan Aqueduct. Stradbally, with its steam museum, is about 5 km to the west.