Townsend House
+2 photosAbout Townsend House
Townsend House is a Fáilte Ireland approved 3-star guest house in Birr, on the Offaly coast, listed on Fáilte Ireland’s official register of quality-assured accommodation. It is a smaller, owner-run house of 9 rooms, the kind of place where you deal with the people who actually run it.
Georgian townhouse offering classic rooms with free WiFi and breakfast, plus a wine bar.
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Claim this listingStaying in Birr
A Georgian heritage town in the Offaly midlands, built around Birr Castle Demesne and the story of the Great Telescope.
Birr grew up as an estate town around the Parsons family seat, and its wide Georgian streets, Oxmantown Mall and Emmet Square among them, still carry that planned, orderly layout. The town’s centrepiece is Birr Castle Demesne, still the family home of the Earls of Rosse, whose grounds and walled gardens are open to the public and whose most famous resident is the Great Telescope, or Leviathan of Parsonstown, built in 1845 and the largest telescope in the world for the best part of seventy years.
A B&B in Birr puts you a short walk from all of that. The castle demesne alone is worth a half day, between the gardens, the science centre built around the telescope, and the riverside walks, and the town itself has enough Georgian streetscape and independent shops to fill the rest of a day without needing to drive anywhere.
Birr also works well as a base for exploring the wider midlands. The Slieve Bloom Mountains rise just to the east, offering low-key hillwalking without the crowds of the more famous ranges, and the River Shannon towns of Banagher and Shannonbridge are both a short drive away, the latter giving easy access to the early Christian monastic site at Clonmacnoise.
Things to do near Townsend House
Birr Castle Demesne
Still home to the Earls of Rosse, the castle itself is not open, but its extensive gardens are, including formal parterres, a riverside walk and box hedges that rank among the tallest in the world, planted in the 1780s and still growing.
The Great Telescope and Ireland’s Historic Science Centre
Built in 1845 by William Parsons, the 3rd Earl of Rosse, the Great Telescope was the largest in the world from its construction until 1917, and it was used to make some of the earliest observations of spiral galaxies. It has been restored and stands in the demesne alongside a science centre covering the family’s scientific work.
Birr’s Georgian streetscape
Oxmantown Mall, lined with mature trees and Georgian townhouses, and Emmet Square, one of the largest Georgian squares outside Dublin, both reflect Birr’s planned 18th-century layout as an estate town.
The Slieve Bloom Mountains
A range of rounded, forested hills straddling the Offaly and Laois border, the Slieve Blooms offer waymarked walking trails through blanket bog and woodland without the crowds found in Ireland’s better-known mountain areas.
Clonmacnoise
One of Ireland’s most important early Christian monastic sites, founded on the Shannon in the 6th century, Clonmacnoise is reachable from Birr via the small river town of Shannonbridge in around half an hour.
Getting to Birr
Birr sits on the N52 in County Offaly, roughly forty minutes from Athlone, which has the nearest mainline rail station on the Dublin to Galway line. Bus Éireann services connect Birr to the surrounding midlands towns, but this is a part of the country where a car makes the surrounding countryside, the Slieve Blooms and the Shannon towns, much easier to reach.
Booking Townsend House direct, and what the rating means
A real, assessed guest house
Townsend House holds a 3-star guest house rating under Fáilte Ireland's National Quality Assurance Framework, assessed against the bedrooms, bathrooms, breakfast and welcome rather than self-declared. It's an independent signal you can trust before you book, separate from any platform's own review score.
No fees, no middleman
Ring the owner, or use the contact details on this page, and arrange the stay with the house rather than through an app. No booking fee added to your bill and no commission taken from the owner, so the room rate you agree is the room rate you pay.
A better stay, direct
Owners answer the questions a booking platform never will: whether the room at the front is quieter, how early breakfast can be served, or where to park for a few days. Speaking to the house directly is how B&Bs in Ireland were booked for decades.
Still deciding where to base yourself? Browse more B&Bs in Offaly.
Check availability at Townsend House
Send the owner the details of your stay and they will come back to you directly. No booking fee, no platform in between, just Birr on the other end.
Townsend House, common questions
Where is Townsend House?
Townsend House is at Townsend Street, Birr, Co. Offaly (Eircode R42 TK88). Give the Eircode to your sat-nav to find the door.
How do I book Townsend House?
You contact the owner directly, by phone or the enquiry form on this page. DirectBnB adds no booking fee and takes no commission, so you arrange the stay with the house itself and pay the room rate with nothing on top.
What star rating does Townsend House have?
Townsend House is a Fáilte Ireland approved 3-star guest house under Fáilte Ireland's National Quality Assurance Framework, and guests rate it 4.6 out of 5 across 113 Google reviews.
How many rooms does Townsend House have?
Townsend House has 9 rooms. As a smaller, owner-run house it is worth booking ahead, particularly in summer and over weekends.
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