myireland.ie
Brownshill dolmen, County Carlow
Photograph: Elliot Tucker · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Province of Leinster

County Carlow

Ceatharlach

“CAH-har-lakh” · four lakes, from ceathair (four) + loch (lake)

Known as The Dolmen County. For Browneshill dolmen outside Carlow town, whose capstone weighs an estimated 150 tonnes and is believed to be the heaviest in Europe. How Neolithic farmers raised it is still an open question.

Did you know? The capstone of Browneshill Dolmen weighs an estimated 150 tonnes — believed to be the heaviest in Europe. How Neolithic farmers raised it remains an open question.
A fact like this for every county and every age →

Compare with another county → · Printable one-page summary →

Carlow by the numbers
Leinster province 61,931 people · 2022 census 897 km² · 31st of 32 by size County town Carlow -21% in the Famine · 86,228 people in 1841, 68,000 in 1851 (approx.) 7 baronies · 601 townlands 1930s folklore · the Schools' Collection ↗ 6 surnames 4 towns on the site 464 daily Irish speakers Highest point Mount Leinster, 794 m 0 senior All-Irelands 30 notable people born here 291 historic buildings recorded Everything on the site about Carlow ↓
Carlow Cavan Cork Donegal Dublin Clare Galway Kerry Kildare Kilkenny Laois Leitrim Limerick Longford Louth Mayo Meath Monaghan Offaly Roscommon Sligo Tipperary Waterford Westmeath Wexford Wicklow Antrim Armagh Down Fermanagh Londonderry Tyrone

Open the atlas ↗

The history of Carlow

Carlow has perhaps the densest scatter of megalithic monuments in Ireland — standing stones, bullauns, cairns and dolmens, which give it the name the Dolmen County; the Brownshill Dolmen is reputed to be the largest in Europe. Holding both the navigable Barrow and the Slighe Cualann, one of the great roads to Tara, the area was vital to anyone who wanted to be king of Leinster, and by the 11th century the Mac Murchada branch of the Uí Ceinnselaig held that kingship.

The Normans founded the borough of Carlow in 1210, and the Liberty of Carlow of 1247 was more than three times the size of today's county, reaching the coast at Arklow. Art MacMurrough-Kavanagh, king of Leinster, came to control more than half of it, and took payments from the colonists that amounted to rent for his sovereignty; his descendants still live at Borris House. From 1361 to 1374 Carlow was the capital of the English lordship of Ireland. The land on its fringes that fell to the O'Byrnes and others went to Wicklow in 1606, which is why today's boundary follows the old Norman core.

After Cromwell, Carlow was one of four counties set aside to pay the Commonwealth's debts, though much of that land went back to its owners at the Restoration. In 1798 the rising in Carlow was crushed at the Battle of Carlow in May, followed by months of reprisals; Irish was still spoken in the county into the 1870s. In the War of Independence the Carlow Brigade based itself at Duckett's Grove, and the Carlow Republican District Court of February 1922 was the first court held under the new Free State. W. T. Cosgrave, first head of an independent Irish government, sat for Carlow–Kilkenny from 1921 to 1927.

Drawn from the History section of the Wikipedia article on County Carlow ↗, rewritten here and adding nothing it does not say; licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. The chronology above is this site's own; where the two differ, the article is the one to check.

The land — from Wikipedia

Carlow is the second-smallest of Ireland's 32 counties by area, and the third-smallest in terms of population. It is the second-smallest of Leinster's 12 counties in both size and population. Carlow is landlocked and bordered by five counties – Kilkenny to the west, Wicklow to the east, Wexford to the southeast, and Laois and Kildare to the north. Carlow town is both the county town and largest settlement, and is situated on the River Barrow in the north of the county approximately from Waterford and from Dublin.

Read the full article ↗ · Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Clans & surnames of Carlow
Brophy Ó Bróithe Gaelic sept · “descendant of Brothe” Kavanagh Caomhánach Gaelic dynasty · “follower of St Caomhán” Kinsella Cinnsealach Gaelic dynasty · “of the Uí Cheinnsealaigh — the royal line of south Leinster” Lynam Ó Laidhghneáin Gaelic sept · “descendant of Laidhghneán, 'snow-birth'” Nolan Ó Nualláin Gaelic sept · “descendant of Nuallán, 'famous, noble'” Wall de Bhál Norman · “du val — 'of the valley'”

Tap a name for its full page — story, homeland map and neighbours. Or see all surnames from County Carlow, with the other counties each name is tied to.

Towns, saints and legends of Carlow

Towns. Carlow Ceatharlach (27,351, 2022), Tullow An Tulach (5,138, 2022), Bagenalstown Muine Bheag, Leighlinbridge Leithghlinn an Droichid. What every town name means →

Legends set here. St Mullin’s — the death of Mad Sweeney. On the atlas →

First names that belong here. Art, Criomhthann, Lasairian.

Irish in Carlow today

At the 2022 census, 21,426 people in Carlow said they could speak Irish. 464 speak it every day outside school, and 1,179 weekly.

1 primary school here teaches entirely through Irish (2025/26, 432 pupils), and 1 secondary school.

CSO, Census 2022, table SAP2022T3T2CTY. Every county compared →

The top of Carlow

Mount Leinster (Stua Laighean), 794 metres, in the Blackstairs Mountains, on the county boundary and shared with a neighbouring county.

Rivers and loughs: River Barrow, River Slaney.

MountainViews, via Wikipedia. Every county's highest point → · Rivers and loughs →

Carlow in the All-Ireland

Hurling: no senior title.
Football: no senior title.

Every county's All-Ireland titles →

Born in Carlow

From Wikidata: people whose recorded birthplace is in the county, who have a Wikipedia article and are no longer living, with dates shown only where the article confirms them, ordered by how many languages Wikipedia covers them in. Traditional birthplaces of early saints are as Wikidata records them. Dates are left off where the sources disagree.

People in Carlow, census by census

Carlow had 86,228 people in 1841 and has 61,931 now (-28%). Its peak was 86,228 in 1841; its low point 33,342 in 1961, -61% of 1841. It has never regained the population it had before the Famine.

1821183118411851186118711881189119011911192619361946195119561961196619711979198119861991199620022006201120162022
78,95281,98886,22868,07857,13751,65046,56840,93637,74836,25234,47634,45234,08134,16233,88833,34233,59334,23738,66839,82040,98840,94241,61646,01450,34954,61256,93261,968

Census returns as tabulated in the county's Wikipedia article. All 32 counties, 1821 to today →

Hidden Carlow — the places the buses miss
  • Browneshill dolmen
    A capstone of some 100 tonnes, the heaviest in Europe, raised by farmers without wheels or metal. Nobody is sure how.
  • St Mullin’s
    Moling founded this in the early 7th century and is said to have dug the mill race himself. The Book of Mulling, written here in the 8th century, carries the earliest known plan of an Irish monastery — four crosses inside the wall and eight outside.
On the ground in Carlow

Every pin is placed by its documented coordinates. All the monuments of Ireland →

Everything on the site about County Carlow

The county

History

Monuments and heritage

Coast and country

People and culture

Quick answers
What is the Irish name for County Carlow?

Ceatharlach. Carlow is one of the 12 counties of Leinster (Cúige Laighean).

Who ruled County Carlow in the Middle Ages?

Around 1014 it was held by Kingdom of Leinster (Mac Murrough); by 1450, MacMurrough Kavanagh. The full era-by-era chronology is on this page.

What surnames come from County Carlow?

Names historically associated with Carlow include Brophy, Kavanagh, Kinsella, Lynam, Nolan, Wall.

What does Ceatharlach mean?

Ceatharlach, said “CAH-har-lakh”, means four lakes — from ceathair (four) + loch (lake). Traditionally read as four lakes, though there are none there now and the reading is not certain.

What is the population of County Carlow?

61,931 at the 2022 census, against 86,228 in 1841, before the Famine.

What is the county town of Carlow?

Carlow. County Carlow covers about 897 km², which makes it the 31st largest of the 32 counties.

Who are famous people from County Carlow?

Among the best-known people born in Carlow are John Tyndall, Nicholas Aylward Vigors, William Desmond Taylor, Finnian of Clonard, Pierce Butler, Patrick Francis Moran. The full list, with their birthplaces, is on this page.

What did the Famine do to County Carlow?

The census counted 86,228 people in Carlow in 1841 and 68,000 in 1851 (the 1851 figure is approximate): a change of -21% in ten years, through death and emigration.

Sources for this page

A clean copy for school projects or the family file; collapsed sections print in full.

The chronology of who held the county is this site's own reading of the standard histories onto today's county borders, and says so where the fit is rough. Quoted passages are marked and licensed. Spotted an error? Say so — corrections are credited.

Trace your ancestors in Carlow

Free, from the holding institutions. How to begin: the six-step guide → · Spotted an error on this page? Suggest a correction.