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Glendalough, County Wicklow
Photograph: Denzillacey · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Province of Leinster

County Wicklow

Cill Mhantáin

“kill WAN-tawn” · church of the toothless one, from cill (church) + mantán (toothless one)

Known as The Garden of Ireland. For the gardens and the glens: Powerscourt, Mount Usher, and the wooded valleys running down from the mountains within an hour of Dublin.

Did you know? Wicklow was the last county in Ireland to be created (1606) — its mountains sheltered the O'Byrnes and O'Tooles, unconquered for 400 years within sight of Dublin Castle.
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Wicklow by the numbers
Leinster province 155,851 people · 2022 census 2,027 km² · 17th of 32 by size County town Wicklow -22% in the Famine · 126,143 people in 1841, 98,000 in 1851 (approx.) 8 baronies · 1,354 townlands 1930s folklore · the Schools' Collection ↗ 2 Olympic medallists born here 9 surnames 6 towns on the site 1,580 daily Irish speakers Highest point Lugnaquilla, 925 m 0 senior All-Irelands 30 notable people born here 1,293 historic buildings recorded Everything on the site about Wicklow ↓
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 Wicklow

Palladius, sent to "the Irish believing in Christ", is said to have landed at Wicklow harbour in 431 and founded churches at Donard, Tigroney and Colbinstown before leaving for Scotland. Many early saints, women and men, founded churches and convents in Wicklow — Kevin among them — and the ancient monastery of Glendalough is here.

Wicklow was the last of the traditional counties to be created, in 1606, from parts of Dublin and Carlow, to control the O'Byrnes and their neighbours. After 1798, when United Irishmen held out in the mountains and fought at Aughrim and Arklow, the government built the Military Road from Rathfarnham to Aghavannagh. In 1795 a month-long gold rush near Woodenbridge yielded as much as 80 kg of gold. Wicklow was the first county to lose Irish — only about 2% spoke it in the 1770s — and Andrew and Hannah Byrne of Glenealy, who died in 1830, were among its last native speakers.

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

Wicklow is part of the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. It is bounded by four counties, Dublin to the north; Kildare and Carlow to the west; Wexford to the south; and the Irish Sea to the east. Wicklow is the 17th largest of Ireland's 32 traditional counties by land area, and the 16th most populous. It is the fourth largest of Leinster's 12 counties by size and the fifth most populous. The county is named after the town of Wicklow, located approximately south of Dublin, the capital city of Ireland.

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

Clans & surnames of Wicklow
Byrne Ó Broin Gaelic sept · “descendant of Bran, 'raven'” Cullen Ó Cuilinn Gaelic sept · “descendant of Cuileann, 'holly'” Doyle Ó Dubhghaill Norse-Gaelic · “descendant of Dubhghall, 'dark foreigner' — a Viking” Hackett Haicéid Norman · “son of Haket, a Norman personal name” Kehoe Mac Eochaidh Gaelic learned family · “son of Eochaidh — from each, 'horse'” Keogh Mac Eochaidh Gaelic learned family · “son of Eochaidh — from each, 'horse'” Kinsella Cinnsealach Gaelic dynasty · “of the Uí Cheinnsealaigh — the royal line of south Leinster” O'Toole Ó Tuathail Gaelic sept · “descendant of Tuathal, 'ruler of the people'” Tighe Ó Taidhg Gaelic sept · “descendant of Tadhg, 'poet'”

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

Towns, saints and legends of Wicklow

Towns. Bray Bré (33,512, 2022), Greystones Na Clocha Liatha (22,009, 2022), Arklow An tInbhear Mór (13,399, 2022), Wicklow Cill Mhantáin (12,957, 2022), Blessington Baile Coimín (5,611, 2022), Baltinglass Bealach Conglais (2,611, 2022). What every town name means →

Saints. St Kevin of Glendalough (3 June).

Legends set here. Glendalough — Kevin and the blackbird. On the atlas →

First names that belong here. Caoimhín.

Irish in Wicklow today

At the 2022 census, 56,012 people in Wicklow said they could speak Irish. 1,580 speak it every day outside school, and 3,216 weekly.

6 primary schools here teach entirely through Irish (2025/26, 1,221 pupils), and 2 secondary schools.

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

The top of Wicklow

Lugnaquilla (Log na Coille), 925 metres, in the Wicklow Mountains.

National park: Wicklow Mountains (1991). All the national parks →

Rivers and loughs: River Liffey, River Slaney, Poulaphouca Reservoir.

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

Wicklow in the All-Ireland

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

Every county's All-Ireland titles →

Born in Wicklow

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 Wicklow, census by census

Wicklow had 126,143 people in 1841 and has 155,851 now (+24%). its low point 57,591 in 1926, -54% of 1841. It is one of the counties that has recovered its pre-Famine population.

1821183118411851186118711881189119011911192619361946195119561961196619711979198119861991199620022006201120162022
110,767121,557126,14398,97986,47978,69770,38662,13660,82460,71157,59158,56960,45162,59059,90658,47360,42866,29583,95087,44994,54297,265102,683114,676126,194136,640142,425155,485

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

Hidden Wicklow — the places the buses miss
  • Piper’s Stones, Athgreany
    Sixteen granite boulders of a Bronze Age circle, with one stone standing apart to the north-east. Dance here on a Sunday, they said, and you join them: the outlier is the piper, the ring is his congregation, caught mid-reel.
  • Glendalough
    Kevin’s valley of the two lakes — a monastic city built in a place chosen for being hard to reach. He died in 618, by which time his school’s fame had already carried across Europe.
On the ground in Wicklow

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

Everything on the site about County Wicklow

The county

History

Monuments and heritage

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People and culture

Quick answers
What is the Irish name for County Wicklow?

Cill Mhantáin. Wicklow is one of the 12 counties of Leinster (Cúige Laighean).

Who ruled County Wicklow in the Middle Ages?

Around 1014 it was held by Kingdom of Leinster (Mac Murrough); by 1450, O'Byrne & O'Toole country. The full era-by-era chronology is on this page.

What surnames come from County Wicklow?

Names historically associated with Wicklow include Byrne, Cullen, Doyle, Hackett, Kehoe, Keogh, Kinsella, O'Toole, among others.

What does Cill Mhantáin mean?

Cill Mhantáin, said “kill WAN-tawn”, means church of the toothless one — from cill (church) + mantán (toothless one). The English name is Old Norse Víkingaló, the Vikings' meadow — so the two names share nothing at all.

What is the population of County Wicklow?

155,851 at the 2022 census, against 126,143 in 1841, before the Famine.

What is the county town of Wicklow?

Wicklow. County Wicklow covers about 2,027 km², which makes it the 17th largest of the 32 counties.

Who are famous people from County Wicklow?

Among the best-known people born in Wicklow are Charles Stewart Parnell, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, Ninette de Valois, Ron Delany, Joshua Pim. The full list, with their birthplaces, is on this page.

What did the Famine do to County Wicklow?

The census counted 126,143 people in Wicklow in 1841 and 98,000 in 1851 (the 1851 figure is approximate): a change of -22% 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 Wicklow

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