[edit]
Landmarks[edit]
See also: List of National Monuments in County Carlow
Prehistoric era[edit]
Brownshill Dolmen, c. 4,000 BC
Carlow is nicknamed the "Dolmen County", reflecting the abundance of dolmens found within its borders. Dolmens or "portal tombs" are above-grove burial chambers which were used by Neolithic farming communities. The Brownshill Dolmen, situated on the Hacketstown Road (R726), has a capstone which weighs an estimated 100 metric tons, and is reputed to be the heaviest in Europe. The tomb is listed as a national monument. There are at least 10 megalithic tombs within the county, of which 7 are dolmens. Carlow and Kilkenny have 14 dolmens between them, many of which are among the most impressive in Ireland. This is unusual for such a small area. In contrast, County Galway, over twice the size of Carlow and Kilkenny combined, has 7 dolmens, and Cork – Ireland's largest county – has just 2. This suggests that the fertile plains of the Barrow and its tributaries were well inhabited during the prehistoric era.
A wealth of Neolithic, Mesolithic and Bronze Age artefacts were discovered during excavations for the M9 Carlow Bypass in 2006. A total of 57 archaeological sites were identified along the proposed route and yielded a variety of relics, including flint arrowheads and bone scrapers, pottery, hammers and axeheads made of granite and an Iron Age glass bead. These artefacts are now housed in the Carlow County Museum. Their discovery a significant distance from any water sources revealed that the extent of early settlement in the area was more widespread than previously thought.
Numerous surviving Ogham stones dot the landscape of the county. The stones use Ogham inscription to record personal names, and were most likely commemorative monuments to the deceased individual. Many of the stones are inscribed with Old Irish, but some have been distinctly "Christianised" through the influence of local monastic settlements, such as the Rathglass Ogham Stone which reads "Donaidonas Maqi Mariani" – Donaidonas son of. Marianus. The stones are typically cut from weather-resistant granite, although they are not immune to decay. The Patrickswell Ogham Stone, believed to have been associated with the Waterstown ecclesiastical site, is now illegible.
Religious Structures[edit]
See also: List of monastic houses in County Carlow
12th-century St Laserian's Cathedral
Early Christian settlements were founded throughout Carlow from the 5th to 7th century. An extensive monastic site is located at St Mullin's in the southern tip of the county. The village is named after Saint Moling, who founded a monastery there in the early 7th century. The monastery was said to have been built with the help of "Gobán Saor", the legendary Irish builder. An 8th-century manuscript, The Book of Mulling, contains a plan of the monastery – the earliest known plan of an Irish monastery – which shows four crosses inside and eight crosses outside the circular monastic wall.
7th-century Monastic Site at St. Mullin's
Old Leighlin was the site of one of the largest monastic settlements in Ireland, founded by St Goban in the 6th century. In 630 AD a church synod was held at Old Leighlin which determined the date of Easter. The main abbey of Old Leighlin was destroyed by fire in 1060 and replaced in the 12th century with St Laserian's Cathedral. The cathedral remains in use to this day and was modified over centuries, with each change adding unique elements to the building. Among the most recent additions are the stained glass windows created by Catherine Amelia O'Brien in 1934. Once the cathedral church of the former Diocese of Leighlin, it is now one of the six cathedrals in the Diocese of Cashel and Ossory of the Church of Ireland.
The remote abbey of Clonmore was founded in the 6th century by Máedóc of Ferns. It flourished until the 11th century and taught Saint Finian Lobhar as well as Saint Oncho, who is buried at the site. While the monastery's buildings have long since been demolished, a substantial cemetery remains which includes high crosses, ogham stones, ballaun stones and numerous inscribed grave slabs from Early Christian Ireland.
Another monastery was established by Saint Comhgall in 634 and is located in present-day Carlow town. The Normans built a stone wall around the town in the 13th century. The monastery, which was by that stage in ruins, lay just outside of it. The burial grounds survive today at Castle Hill and a new church was built at the site in 1727, known as St. Mary's Church. A 59.5 m (195 ft) spire was added in 1834, which remains the tallest building in the county.
The Cathedral of the Assumption in Carlow town was built in a Gothic Revival style in the early 1800s and is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin. It once boasted a 6 m (20 ft)-tall ornately carved wooden pulpit, which is now on display in the Carlow County Museum and was featured in A History of Ireland in 100 Objects, a national project which identified one hundred archaeological or cultural objects that are important to Irish history.
Castles[edit]
5th-century Motte in Rathvilly
Leighlinbridge Castle
The oldest known castles within the county date from the first few centuries AD. The two most common forms of early defensive structures were ringforts and Motte-and-bailey castles. This style of fortification remained prevalent for centuries, persisting even after the Norman Invasion in the 12th century.[full citation needed]
The Rathvilly Moat, constructed in the 400s, was home to Crimthann mac Énnai, King of Leinster. The town of Rathvilly itself is named after an unknown historic ringfort, derived from the Irish (Irish: Ráth Bhile, meaning 'ringfort of the trees').
The arrival of the Normans was followed by the widespread construction of stone castles and tower houses throughout Ireland. These structures did not entirely supplant the earlier forms of fortification, as evidenced by Castlemore Moat, which is an example of a much later Motte-and-bailey. It was built by Raymond FitzGerald in the 12th century following his conquest of O'Nolan lands in the Barony of Forth.
Carlow Castle, built in 1213, was the first Norman-style four towered keep in Britain or Ireland
Although stone castles were generally of far superior quality, wooden structures were still favoured by the more mobile Irish kingdoms, as they could be easily constructed and abandoned when necessary. As late as the 1370s, the King of Leinster, Art McMurrough-Kavanagh, is recorded as residing in a large wooden fortress in the woods near Old Leighlin.
For six centuries, Carlow Castle was the oldest and most imposing stone castle in the county. Built from 1207 to 1213, the town of Carlow grew around it, and it once stood as the centrepiece of the walled medieval town, complete with four towers (of which two survive). The castle endured numerous sieges and conquests, and changed hands dozens of times throughout its history, remaining intact. In 1812 the castle was leased to Dr. Phillip Parry Price Middleton, who intended to convert it into a psychiatric hospital. In an ill-fated attempt at remodelling, Middleton used gunpowder to create cut-and-cover tunnels beneath the castle. This undermined the castle's foundations and its entire eastern side collapsed into rubble. It lay abandoned until the Office of Public Works renovated the site in the 1990s.
Other notable castles and castle ruins which are listed as National Monuments include the 15th century Leighlinbridge Castle, around which the town of Leighlinbridge grew; Ballymoon Castle, which was constructed in the 13th century near Muine Bheag; and Ballyloughan Castle which belonged to the Kavanagh dynasty until the 16th century.
Estates and Manor Houses[edit]
See also: List of country houses in County Carlow
Built in 1625, Huntington Castle is an early example of a plantation home
Carlow was at the epicentre of the estates period of the late-18th and 19th centuries, and the county had a greater number of country houses and demesnes per hectare than any other rural county in Ireland. These "Big Houses" and their occupants dominated the economic and political landscape until the turn of the 20th century. Although the term was never applied at the time, historian Jimmy O'Toole refers to Carlow as "the most gentrified county in Ireland" due to the concentration of aristocratic families and their grand estates within its borders.
19th-century Lisnavagh House, a typical Anglo-Irish big house
A valuation survey undertaken in 1876 revealed that just 21 families owned 34,031 ha (84,090 acres) – almost 40% of the entire county. Although not as prevalent as in other counties, absenteeism by the landholding class in Carlow was still common. Towards the end of the 19th century, anger at high-rents and the widespread eviction of tenant farmers in Ireland resulted in the Land War (1879–1882) and the formation of the Irish National Land League led by Charles Stewart Parnell, which heralded the end of the estates period.[full citation needed]
While as many as 300 Big Houses across Ireland were burned down during the revolutionary period, Carlow was left relatively untouched, losing just three Big Houses between 1919 and 1923, two of which were unoccupied. Éamon de Valera was against such burnings and addressed supporters at the gates of Browne's Hill House in January 1923, stating that "nothing was to be achieved by the burning or damaging of homes, big or small... raid for arms, yes, but leave them as they found them".
Some of the most prominent Big Houses are currently in public ownership, such as Altamont House, Oak Park and Duckett's Grove. Several historically significant Big Houses such as Borris House, Huntington Castle and Dunleckney Manor are privately owned but open to tours and visitors at certain times of year. The majority of the surviving Big Houses within the county are in use as either private residences or hotels, while a small number have been abandoned and are in a derelict state.
Natural Attractions[edit]
Gardens and Trails[edit]
Altamont Gardens
The Carlow Garden Trail features 21 gardens and curated woodlands of former estate houses located within the county. Gardens include the Delta Sensory Gardens in Carlow town, the Edinburgh Woollen Mills Arboretum in Leighlinbridge, the Borris House gardens and woodlands, Lucy's Wood and the Newtownbarry House gardens near Bunclody, the Kilgraney house gardens, the Hardymount house gardens and the Duckett's Grove gardens. The Robinsonian-style gardens of Altamont House are often referred to as "the jewel in Ireland's gardening crown".
Yew grove at Clonegal, planted in the early 1600s
There are several long-distance trails which traverse the county. Ireland's flagship long-distance trail – the Wicklow Way – ends in Clonegal in northeastern Carlow, after crossing the Wicklow Mountains for 131 kilometres (81 miles). The Barrow Way follows the course of River Barrow for 100 kilometres (62 miles) from Robertstown, County Kildare to St Mullin's. The South Leinster Way begins at the foot of Mount Leinster near Kildavin, and runs for 104 kilometres (65 miles) before joining the River Suir at Carrick-on-Suir in County Tipperary.
The Blackstairs Mountains are a designated Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) and contain a diverse range of habitats which are protected under Irish and European law. These habitats range from dense forested areas to open heath and blanket bog. Vegetation within the range is limited to those adapted to the strong winds and often freezing temperatures of the mountain-tops, and include Western gorse (Ulex gallii), Ling heather (Calluna vulgaris) and Bell Heather (Erica cinerea). The last recorded Irish wolf was shot and killed in Fenagh after wandering down from Mount Leinster in 1786. Populations of Red deer and Feral goats roam the range; however, human intervention is required to control their population as they now lack natural predators.
Other natural features and wildlife habitats within Carlow which have been identified as proposed Natural Heritage Areas include Baggot's Wood, John's Hill, Ardristan Fen, the Ballymoon Esker, the Slaney River Valley and Cloghristick Wood.
