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Monasterboice, County Louth
Photograph: Kevin King · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Province of Leinster

County Louth

Lú

“LOO” · traditionally linked to the god Lugh, from Lú

Known as The Wee County. Because it is the smallest of the thirty-two, at 826 square kilometres. Carlow is next and is seventy square kilometres bigger.

Did you know? Ireland's smallest county is the stage of its greatest epic: the Táin Bó Cúailnge, where the boy-warrior Cúchulainn defended Ulster single-handed at the fords.
A fact like this for every county and every age →

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

Louth by the numbers
Leinster province 139,100 people · 2022 census 826 km² · the smallest county County town Dundalk -16% in the Famine · 128,240 people in 1841, 108,000 in 1851 (approx.) 6 baronies · 665 townlands 1930s folklore · the Schools' Collection ↗ 1 Olympic medallist born here 12 surnames 3 towns on the site 1,048 daily Irish speakers Highest point Slieve Foye, 589 m 3 senior All-Irelands 30 notable people born here 1,347 historic buildings recorded Everything on the site about Louth ↓
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 Louth

Louth takes its name from the village of Louth, which is named after Lugh. The county is the setting for much of the Táin Bó Cúailnge. The Vikings named Carlingford Lough and built a longphort at Annagassan in the 9th century. Early in the 12th century the area became part of the O'Carroll kingdom of Airgíalla, and Monasterboice, Mellifont Abbey and the Dominican friary of St Mary Magdalene are among its religious sites.

The Normans came in the 1180s and made the area "English Oriel". Edward Bruce was crowned near Dundalk on 2 May 1316 and killed at Faughart by a mostly local force under John de Bermingham, who was made Earl of Louth and then killed with some 200 of his household in the Braganstown massacre of 1329. Louth counted as part of Ulster until 1596. It lay on the road to the Gap of the North, and in 1649 Cromwell took Drogheda and killed its garrison and hundreds of its people; in 1690 the Boyne was fought 3 km west of the town.

In 1798 United Irish leaders from Castletown, Louth and Dundalk were betrayed by informers and several were hanged; after the burning of Wildgoose Lodge in 1816, eighteen men were executed. Nicholas Callan, priest and inventor of the first induction coil, came from Darver.

Drawn from the History section of the Wikipedia article on County Louth ↗, 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

Louth, colloquially known as "The Wee County", is the smallest of Ireland's 32 counties by area, at 826km2. It is the 17th most populous county, making it the fourth most densely populated county on the island of Ireland. It is the smallest of Leinster's 12 counties in size and the 6th-largest by population. Louth is bordered by four counties – Meath to the south, Monaghan to the west, Armagh to the north, and Down to the northeast. It bounded to the east by the Irish Sea. Dundalk is the county town and is located approximately from Belfast and from Dublin. Louth is also the northernmost county in Leinster, and the only county in the province to share a border with Northern Ireland.

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

Clans & surnames of Louth
Callan Ó Cathaláin Gaelic sept · “descendant of Cathalán, 'little battle-mighty one'” Carroll Ó Cearbhaill Gaelic sept · “descendant of Cearbhall, 'fierce in battle'” Fleming Pléimeann Norman-Flemish · “'the Fleming' — from Flanders” Halpin Ó hAilpín Gaelic sept · “descendant of Ailpín” Hanratty Ó hAnrachtaigh Gaelic sept · “descendant of Anrachtach, 'unlawful'” Neary Ó Náradhaigh Gaelic sept · “descendant of Náradach, 'good, noble'” O'Hare Ó hÍr / Ó hAichir Gaelic sept · “descendant of Ír, 'long-lasting' — or of Aichear, 'fierce'” Plunkett Pluincéid Norman · “Norman Blanchet, from French blanc, 'white, pale'” Rafferty Ó Raithbheartaigh Gaelic sept · “a corruption of Ó Robhartaigh” Rice Rís Norman-Welsh · “from Welsh Rhys” Taaffe Táth Norman-Welsh · “from Welsh Dafydd (David)” Watters Mac Uaitéir / Ó hUisce / Ó Fuaruisce Gaelic septs & Ulster settlers · “'son of Walter' (Mac Uaitéir) — or, for the Gaelic septs, names built on 'uisce', water: 'descendant of the water' (Ó hUisce), 'cold water' (Ó Fuaruisce)”

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

Towns, saints and legends of Louth

Towns. Drogheda Droichead Átha (44,135, 2022), Dundalk Dún Dealgan (43,112, 2022), Ardee Baile Átha Fhirdhia (5,478, 2022). What every town name means →

Saints. St Malachy (3 November).

Legends set here. Cooley Peninsula — the Brown Bull · Ardee — the ford of Ferdia · Knockbridge — Cú Chulainn's death. On the atlas →

First names that belong here. Éimear, Darragh, Ferdia, Setanta.

Irish in Louth today

At the 2022 census, 44,078 people in Louth said they could speak Irish. 1,048 speak it every day outside school, and 2,576 weekly.

2 primary schools here teach entirely through Irish (2025/26, 355 pupils).

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

The top of Louth

Slieve Foye (Sliabh Feá), 589 metres, in the Cooley Mountains.

Wrecks on its coast: SS Connemara (1916). Shipwrecks of Ireland →

Rivers and loughs: River Boyne, Fane River, River Dee, River Glyde.

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

Louth in the All-Ireland

Hurling: no senior title.
Football: 3 senior titles (1910, 1912, 1957); 3 finals lost.

Every county's All-Ireland titles →

Born in Louth

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 Louth, census by census

Louth had 128,240 people in 1841 and has 139,100 now (+8%). its low point 62,739 in 1926, -51% of 1841. It is one of the counties that has recovered its pre-Famine population.

1821183118411851186118711881189119011911192619361946195119561961196619711979198119861991199620022006201120162022
119,129124,846128,240107,66290,71384,02177,68471,03865,82063,66562,73964,33966,19468,77169,19467,37869,51974,95186,13588,51491,81090,72492,166101,821111,267122,897128,884139,100

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

Hidden Louth — the places the buses miss
  • Faughart
    Where Edward Bruce, King of Ireland for two years, was killed in 1318 — on the hill of St Brigid's birthplace.
  • Monasterboice
    Muiredach's Cross (the finest high cross in Ireland, a 10th-century Bible carved in stone) and a round tower still standing after a Viking burning in 1097.
On the ground in Louth

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

Everything on the site about County Louth

The county

History

Monuments and heritage

Coast and country

People and culture

Quick answers
What is the Irish name for County Louth?

Lú. Louth is one of the 12 counties of Leinster (Cúige Laighean).

Who ruled County Louth in the Middle Ages?

Around 1014 it was held by Airgíalla (Oriel); by 1450, The English Pale. The full era-by-era chronology is on this page.

What surnames come from County Louth?

Names historically associated with Louth include Callan, Carroll, Fleming, Halpin, Hanratty, Neary, O'Hare, Plunkett, among others.

What does Lú mean?

Lú, said “LOO”, means traditionally linked to the god Lugh — from Lú. Named for the village of Louth. The link to Lugh is traditional and often repeated; it is not securely established.

What is the population of County Louth?

139,100 at the 2022 census, against 128,240 in 1841, before the Famine.

What is the county town of Louth?

Dundalk. County Louth covers about 826 km², which makes it the smallest of the 32 counties.

Who are famous people from County Louth?

Among the best-known people born in Louth are Brigid of Kildare, Katherine Plunket, John Elliott Cairnes, Leopold McClintock, Beatrice Hill-Lowe, Peter Rice. The full list, with their birthplaces, is on this page.

What did the Famine do to County Louth?

The census counted 128,240 people in Louth in 1841 and 108,000 in 1851 (the 1851 figure is approximate): a change of -16% 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 Louth

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