Its tree-lined square, its ten-arch bridge, and the ruins of an Augustinian priory visible from the village all contribute to a sense that the place has been quietly left alone, which is itself a kind of historical accident worth paying attention to.

The town's origins are largely medieval. An Augustinian priory was founded here in 1210, and the settlement that grew around it followed the pattern common to many Anglo-Norman plantations in Leinster, with a planned layout oriented around ecclesiastical and market functions. The priory ruins, which include a tower and sections of the cloister, remain within the grounds of the Church of Ireland parish church, a layering of use across centuries that is typical of how religious sites were repurposed following the dissolution of the monasteries in the sixteenth century. The ten-arch bridge over the Nore, though much repaired, is also of considerable age and reflects the town's longstanding role as a crossing point on one of the region's principal rivers.