CARLOW,
an inland county of the province of LEINSTER, bounded on the east
by the counties of Wicklow and Wexford, on the north by those of
Kildare and Wicklow, on the west by the Queen's county and
Kilkenny, and on the south by that of Wexford. It extends from 52°
26' to 52° 54' (N. Lat.), and from 6° 30' to 7° 12' (W. Lon.); and
comprises an area, according to the Ordnance survey, of 219, 863
acres, of which 196,833 are cultivated land, and 23,030 mountain
and bog. The population, in 1821, was 78,952, and in 1831, 81,988.
This district, so far as can be collected from Ptolemy, was the
habitation of the Brigantes and Cauci; or, according to Whitaker,
of the Coriundi. Afterwards it formed the northern part of the
principality of Hy Kinselagh, and was distinguished by the name of
Hy Cabanagh and Hy Drone: in later times it was called Catherlough.
It is noticed in the earliest period of Irish history as the scene
of contention between Conmal, son of Heber, and grandson of
Milesius, and a descendant of Heremon, the latter of whom was
defeated at Leighlin. When Con of the Hundred Battles, who reigned
about the middle of the second century, divided the island into two
jurisdictions, Dinrigh or Dewa Slaney, between Carlow and Leighlin,
and Naas in Kildare, were made the sites of the royal palaces of
the kingdom of Leinster.
No traces of ruins, however, now exist to
confirm the truth of this traditionary record, with respect to the
former of those places. The synod of the clergy held about the year
630, to decide on the proper time for the celebration of Easter,
met at St. Gobhan's abbey, in Old Leighlin; and about the same time
the bishoprick, which takes its name from that place, was founded.
That the county shared with the other parts of the island in the
devastations committed by the Danes, during the ninth and tenth
centuries, appears from the fact that the rich abbey of
Achadfinglas was plundered by them in 864. The year 908 was
distinguished by a decisive battle between the people of Leinster
and those of Munster, the latter headed by Cormac Mac-Cuillenan,
better known as the writer of the Psalter of Cashel than by his
political or military acts: the scene of this battle was at Moyalbe,
supposed by O'Halloran and Lanigan to be somewhere in the vicinity
of Ballymoon, in this county; the Munster men were defeated, and
Cormac, with many of his nobles and officers, and six thousand of
his best soldiers, slain. In the same century, the monastery of St.
Mullins was plundered by the Danes, and Leighlin was three times
taken by the people of Ossory. After the arrival of the English, it
appears that some of the petty chieftains of the district refused
to join in the alliance formed by Dermot Mac Murrough, their king,
with the Welsh invaders. For, when Strongbow, after having
dispersed the numerous army with which Roderic, King of Ireland,
had invested Dublin, marched southward to relieve Fitz-Stephen,
then blocked up in Carrig castle, near Wexford, he was assailed
during his passage through Hy Drone by O'Ryan, the lord of the
country, with such impetuosity that victory remained doubtful,
until the death of the Irish leader turned the scale in favour of
the invaders. It was in this battle that Strongbow is said to have
hewn his son, a youth about fifteen years of age, in two, for
deserting his post during the engagement.
The importance attached
by the conquerors to the possession of the territory thus acquired
is evident from the fact that, within a few years after, the
castles of Carlow, Leighlin, and Tullow, were erected by Hugh de
Lacy, then lord-deputy. After the death of William, Earl-Marshal,
to whom nearly the whole of Leinster belonged in right of his wife
Isabel, daughter of Strongbow by Eva, princess of Leinster and
heiress of Dermot Mac Murrough, this vast estate was divided among
his five daughters; and the palatinate of Carlow, which had been
previously made one of the twelve counties into which King John
divided all those parts of Ireland that acknowledged his government
devolved by marriage on Hugh le Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, who thus
became earl-marshal and lord of Carlow, in right of his wife Maud,
eldest daughter of the deceased. For many subsequent years the
English kept possession of these border districts by a very frail
tenure. At the close of the thirteenth century, Old Leighlin was
burnt in an incursion of the people of the neighbouring territory
of Slieumargy, which was then considered to be part of the county;
and, at the commencement of the next century, it appears that the
owners of this princely estate, the palatinate of Carlow, having
also large possessions in England, paid but little attention to its
interests. Residing in another country, and finding their income
from this quarter diminishing, in consequence of the mismanagement
of their deputies and the disturbed state of the country, they had
recourse to a remedy, which, however effectual at first, ultimately
proved destructive to their interests in this quarter. They
retained one of the Kavanaghs, the descendants of Mac Murrough,
and, though illegitimate, the inheritor of his hereditary rights,
as a kind of military agent, to supply by the sword the
deficiencies of the law. Kavanagh, thus placed in a situation
peculiarly tempting to a turbulent and ambitious character, soon
broke the connection, and seized upon a great portion of Carlow and
Wexford, as belonging to him of right: he further assumed the regal
title of Mac Murrough, and strengthened his newly acquired power by
an alliance with the O'Byrnes and O'Tooles of the neighbouring
mountainous district of Wicklow. In 1316, Sir Edmund Butler,
lord-justice, defeated Mac Murrough near Ballylethan; and the same
year was marked by the incursion of Edward Bruce into the southern
counties. But though the invader passed through Castledermot and
Tullow, in his progress southward, he made no impression on this
county; and, that it still continued subject in a great degree to
the sway of the Kavanaghs may be inferred from the circumstance
that, in 1323, Donnell Mac Arthur Mac Murrough, " a slip of the
royal family, " as Campion calls him, raised forces and displayed
his banner within two miles of the city of Dublin. He paid dearly,
however, for his temerity, being defeated by a party of the
garrison. O'Nolan, dynast of Forth barony, and twenty-five of his
followers were killed; and Mac Murrough's life was spared only on
payment of £200, a large sum in those days; after remaining six
years immured in Dublin castle, he at length contrived to effect
his escape through the connivance of his keeper.
After this the Irish enjoyed the ascendancy for some time; they
plundered the English and burnt their churches. One outrage was
marked with features of peculiar atrocity. The church of Freineston,
or Friars-town, was attacked during the time of divine service, the
building fired, and the priest and congregation, while attempting
to escape, driven back into the flames. The spiritual as well as
temporal power was called into action to inflict punishment for
this horrid act. It was visited by a sentence of excommunication
from the pope; and the burghers of Wexford, aided by others of the
English, having attacked the perpetrators when preparing to advance
upon the English settlement there, routed them with considerable
loss both in the field and in crossing the Slaney. The depredations
of the Irish borderers at this period called for the most decisive
measures, as a preliminary for which it was deemed expedient to
summon the most distinguished nobles and prelates to a council in
England. But such was the reduced state of the county, from the
long continuance of deeds of outrage, that the return to the writ
of summons states that, " by reason of poverty, from the frequent
robberies and depredations of the Irish enemies, there was no
layman able to attend the king in the English council. " It appears
further that a temporary protection from the predatory assaults of
the borders could only be procured by the degrading payment of a
tribute called the Black Rent. In 1332, the castle of Clonmore was
taken by the English, yet, notwithstanding the advantage thus
gained, Sir John D'Arcy, the lord-justice, could devise no more
effective means for repressing the spirit of insubordination than
by calling in the assistance of Maurice Fitzgerald, afterwards Earl
of Desmond, whose services were purchased by a promise of
remuneration from the treasury, and whose compliance changed the
aspect of affairs. Advancing against the Mac Murroughs and O'Nolans,
he ravaged their district, compelled their submission, and exacted
hostages for its continuance. But the most disastrous effects were
produced by this connection; the lord-justice, unable to fulfil his
pecuniary engagements, was forced to connive at the extortion of
coyn and livery, now first practised by the English; a grievance
the more intolerable, as it was limited neither in place nor time.
Every lord of a castle, or warden of the marches, made war at his
pleasure, until the desolation became universal and threatened to
be perpetual. Still, however, the Irish, though worsted on most
occasions, were in arms. In 1339, the Earl of Kildare pursued the
O'Dempseys across the Barrow; and the greatest booty ever seized in
the country was carried from Idrone, by the Bishop of Hereford,
then lord-justice. In 1346, the county of Carlow, with all its
appurtenances, was granted in capite to Thomas de Brotherton, Earl
of Norfolk and Marshal of England. The next year, Donald Mac
Murrough, styled Prince of Leinster, was murdered by his own
followers: some years after, the castles of Kilbelle, Galbarstown,
and Rathlyn were taken and dismantled by the O'Nolans, the Mac
Murroughs, and the O'Birnes. In 1361, Lionel, the king's son,
arrived in Ireland as lord-lieutenant. The importance attached by
him to the possession of this district is shown by his causing the
king's exchequer to be removed to Carlow town, and by his expending
the large sum of £500 on the repairs of its fortifications. But the
neglect of the English Government and the intestine feuds of the
natives had been suffered to ferment too long to admit of an
effectual remedy by the exertions of any single governor. To such a
height had the power of the Irish chieftains increased that, within
a very few years, the boundary of the pale was transferred from
Carlow to the immediate vicinity of Dublin. The system of ravage
and desolation continued. The annals of the time state that the
priory of Old Leighlin, being situated in a depopulated and wasted
country, obtained a grant of public money to enable it to give
refuge and succour to the king's subjects; and that the bishop of
the diocese was plundered of all his goods, in 1376, by the
insurgents; also that, in 1389, he obtained a grant of Galroestown,
near the O'Tooles' country, as a residence in lieu of his own,
which had been rendered uninhabitable.
When Richard II. first visited Ireland, in 1394, the place
selected by him to receive the homage and oaths of fidelity of the
Irish was in an open field at Ballygorey, near Carlow, when
Malachias and Arthur Mac Murrough, Gerald O'Birne, Donald O'Nolan,
and others, swore fealty before the earl-marshal on bended knees,
and without girdle, skein, or cap. Pensions on this occasion were
granted to several of them, especially to Art Mac Murrough, chief
of the Kavanaghs, whose grant was continued to his family till the
time of Henry VIII. Yet hardly had the king quitted the country,
when the Irish again asserted the independence they had so long
struggled to maintain; and Richard, determined to effect the
complete subjugation of the country, returned thither in 1399. He
marched from Waterford to Dublin through the districts of the Mac
Murroughs, Kavanaghs, O'Tooles, and O'Byrnes; but, in consequence
of the severe pressure on his men from want of provisions, he
performed no action worthy of notice beyond that of felling
considerable quantities of timber, and clearing the highways
through his line of march. The state of affairs in England
compelled his speedy departure. In 1420, in order to make up a
subsidy of 1000 marks voted to the king, the county of Carlow was
assessed at four marks, one shilling and fourpence; while that of
Louth, nearly of the same area, was charged with twenty-five marks,
twelve shillings and fivepence; a convincing proof of the low ebb
to which the former had been reduced by its internal distractions.
In 1494, the brother of the Earl of Kildare, then strongly
suspected of treasonable intentions, seized on Carlow castle, but
was compelled by the lord-deputy to surrender it, after sustaining
a siege of ten days. Lord Thomas Fitzgerald, better known by the
name of "the Silken Knight," who broke out into rebellion against
Henry VIII. in 1534, was in possession of six of the chief castles
of the kingdom, of which Carlow was one. Three years afterwards,
the act of Absentees was passed, in consequence of which the Duke
of Norfolk was deprived of this county, which he inherited from
Thomas de Brotherton, and a great part of it was afterwards
bestowed upon the Ormonde family. In the same year, the lord-deputy
defeated the Kavanaghs, and compelled their chief to submit and
give hostages. The act for the suppression of religious houses, in
1537, caused the dissolution of three only in this county, being
the preceptory of Killarge, the Carmelite monastery of
Leighlin-Bridge, and the Augustinian friary of Tullow.
In the same reign a fierce contest for their territorial
possessions took place between two branches of the Kavanagh family,
in which, after a pitched battle, wherein upwards of one hundred
were killed on each side, Cahir Mac Art, of Polmonty, prevailed
over Gerald Mac Cahir, of Garryhill, and secured possession of the
disputed property. During the succeeding reign of Edward VI., this
family was perpetually harassed by Sir William Brabazon,
lord-deputy, who ravaged the country, and ultimately compelled the
chieftain of it to make a formal submission, renounce the name of
Mac Murrough, and surrender his jurisdiction and territory. A
change of fortune attended it in the ensuing reign. Charles Mac Art
Kavanagh was created Baron of Balian, and after his death, his
brother Dermot had the same title; but these honours were
insufficient to secure their attachment to the Government; for, in
1555, they invaded the county of Dublin, but were ultimately driven
by a sortie of the armed citizens into Powerscourt castle, where,
on the appearance of a regular military force, they surrendered at
discretion, and were taken to Dublin, where seventy-five of them
were hanged and the rest pardoned. During this and the preceding
period, the barony of Idrone was considered to be a distinct
jurisdiction from the county of Carlow. By an inquisition taken in
the reign of Richard II. it appears, that Sir John Carew, who came
into the country in the train of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, was in
possession of it, and that it devolved, at his death, on Sir
Leonard Carew, upon whose decease the Kavanaghs seized on it and
held it by force of arms. Sir Peter Carew revived and established
the family claim to it before the privy council of Ireland, in
1567; and the next year he was employed by the lord-deputy to put
down Sir Edmund Butler, who had joined the great Earl of Desmond in
his rebellion, and succeeded not only in taking Sir Edmund's castle
of Cloughgrenan, but in routing a large body of the earl's friends
in Kilkenny, and in compelling the Kavanaghs, who had taken up arms
in the same cause, to throw themselves upon the queen's mercy, and
give hostages. Still, the restless spirit of the natives of this
district seems to have been indomitable; for, in 1571, they " began
again," as Hooker quaintly expresses it, "to play their pageants."
A quarrel having taken place between one of the Kavanaghs and a
proprietor of the name of Browne, recourse was had to arms, and
Browne was killed; but the strife was not thus terminated. The
Wexford people joined the weaker party, and the quarrel was still
carried on for some time in petty but sanguinary conflicts, in
which the superior generalship of the leader of the Kavanaghs
finally prevailed. The strife, however, led to no remarkable
changes.
During the attempts made by the court of Spain to excite
insurrections in Ireland, in the latter part of Elizabeth's reign,
the county was harassed by a new disturber. Rory Oge O'More, a
chieftain of the Queen's county, attacked and burnt part of the
town of Leighlin-Bridge: he did not, however, remain unmolested.
Sir George Carew, a relative of Sir Peter, attacked him
unexpectedly by night and routed his party; but the fugitives
having discovered the great inferiority of numbers that pursued
them, rallied and drove the English back to Leighlin castle, which
they very nearly succeeded in taking. O'More afterwards made an
attack on the town of Carlow, but with as little success; he was
finally taken and executed as a rebel. The same spirit of
turbulence continued to the close of Elizabeth's reign. Donell
Kavanagh, usually called Spaniagh or the Spaniard, made himself
peculiarly formidable by his prowess and activity. In 1590, having
procured the aid of the mountain tribes of Wicklow, he plundered
the whole country from the border of Wexford to the gates of
Dublin.
At length Lord Mountjoy undertook the subjugation of the
district, which he effected after ravaging Donell Spaniagh's
country, whence he carried off an immense booty of cattle, and
secured his conquest by placing garrisons in the strong posts of
Wicklow and Tullow. So effectually did he succeed, that the leaders
of those districts served under his standard in his subsequent
operations for tranquillising Munster, in effecting which he made
Carlow his head-quarters, " as being, as things stood, the place
best to give directions to all parts and to secure the most
dangerous." It was not until the ninth year of his reign that James
I. found sufficient leisure to put in practice his pacific project
for the settlement, or plantation, as it was called, of Carlow,
Wexford, and Wicklow counties. In that year a king's letter was
issued on the subject, but it does not appear to have been followed
up, with respect to the first of these counties, by further
measures. On the breaking out of the civil war in 1641, the people
of Carlow and Wexford, together with those of the Wicklow
mountains, took up arms against the Government; and not content
with overrunning these counties, they marched into Waterford, where
they were defeated by Sir William St. Leger, president of Munster.
The next year, the Earl of Ormonde having entered the county with a
large force, the Irish, who were in possession of the town of
Carlow, and had blocked up the English garrison in the castle,
broke up the siege and retreated with some loss; and the garrison,
consisting of 500 men, was thus saved from destruction. When the
confederate Catholics afterwards resolved to levy a force of 31,700
men, this county was assessed at 2400, of which 40 cavalry and 400
infantry were to serve in the general army, and the remainder to
act in the county. The county was not exempt from its share in the
sufferings of 1798: the amount of money claimed by the loyalists
within it, in compensation for their loss of property during the
disturbances, was £24,854. 14. 7.
This county is entirely within the diocese of Leighlin. For
purposes of civil jurisdiction it is divided into the baronies of
Carlow, Idrone East, Idrone West, St. Mullins North, St. Mullins
South, Rathvilly, and Forth. Idrone was divided into East and West,
and made two distinct baronies, in 1802, under the provisions of an
act passed in 1799; and by an order in council, dated June 2nd,
1834, St. Mullins was also divided, pursuant to the same act, into
North and South, or Upper and Lower St. Mullins, now constituting
distinct baronies. The county contains the borough, market, and
assize town of Carlow; the market and post-towns of Tullow,
Bagnalstown, and Leighlin-Bridge; the market-town of Hacketstown,
which has a penny post; the post-town of Clonegal, and part of that
of Newtownbarry; and the ancient disfranchised borough of Old
Leighlin, now a small and deserted village. The largest villages
are Borris, Rathvilly, and the Royal Oak. Prior to the Union it
sent six members to the Irish parliament; namely, two knights of
the shire, and two representatives for each of the boroughs of
Carlow and Old Leighlin; but since that period its representatives
in the Imperial parliament have been limited to two members for the
county at large, and one for the borough of Carlow. The county
constituency, as registered at the close of 1835, consists of 273
£50, 134 £20, and 846 £10, freeholders; 1 £50, 15 £20, and 108 £10
leaseholders; and 9 £50, and 49 £20, rent-chargers; making a total
of 1435 registered voters.
The county is included in the home
circuit: the assizes and general quarter sessions are held at
Carlow, where are the court-house and county gaol; and quarter
sessions are also held at Tullow and Bagnalstown, at the former of
which and at Moneybeg are bridewells. The number of persons charged
with offences and committed, in 1835, was 363, and of civil bill
commitments, 23. The local government is vested in a lieutenant, 6
deputy-lieutenants, and 50 other magistrates, besides whom there
are the usual county officers, including two coroners. There are 19
constabulary police stations, with a force of 5 chief and 20
subordinate constables, and 105 men, with 3 horses; the cost of
maintenance is defrayed equally by Grand Jury presentments and by
Government. There are a district lunatic asylum, and a county
infirmary and fever hospital, at Carlow, also fever hospitals at
Tullow and Bagnalstown; and dispensaries, supported by equal
subscriptions and Grand Jury presentments, at Carlow, Tullow,
Leighlin-Bridge, Borris, Hacketstown, Bagnalstown, Myshall, and
Clonegal. The amount of Grand Jury presentments, for 1835, was
£15,162. 13. 10 1/2. of which £87. 11. 2. was for the public roads
and buildings of the county at large; £4905. 8. 9. for the baronial
roads; £4817. 0. 6. for public buildings, charities, officers'
salaries, &c.; £2483.10.7 ½. for police, and £2869.2.10. in
repayment of an advance made by Government. In the military
arrangements the county is included in the eastern district, and
contains one barrack station for cavalry at Carlow, affording
accommodation for 8 officers, 112 non-commissioned officers and
men, and 90 horses.
This county presents a considerable variety of surface: the
ground is generally undulating, particularly in its northern parts,
where the rivers Barrow and Slaney form broad valleys of great
fertility and beauty, rising into low hills clothed to the summits
with a rich herbage varied by fine plantations. To the south and
west the character changes. In the south the land rises into a very
elevated ridge, which runs along the whole of the south-eastern
verge of the county, separating it by a strongly marked natural
barrier from that of Wexford. The northern portion of this ridge,
which commences from the valley of the Slaney at Newtownbarry, is
called Mount Leinster, and is separated at its southern extremity
from the Blackstairs mountain by Sculloge gap, the only passage
through which a communication can be kept up between the two
counties. Blackstairs extends in the same direction till it is
interrupted by the Barrow, where its rugged and precipitous
termination, together with the peculiarly sombre tints of its
appearance throughout its whole extent, has fixed upon it the name
just mentioned. This part of the country is comparatively barren
and of discouraging aspect. To the west of the Barrow there is also
a tract of elevated land, called the Ridge of Old Leighlin, which,
however, being cultivated to the very summit, does not strictly
merit the name of mountain. This latter district is deficient in
the natural beauties which gratify the eye in the northern and
eastern parts; but their absence is considered to be amply
compensated by the treasures concealed beneath the surface, as this
part of the county forms the commencement of the great coal field
of Leinster, and bears all the external marks of diminished
fertility which usually characterise such tracts.
Though the
country is well watered, there is nothing in it entitled to the
name of lake, although the more ancient name of its chief town,
Catherlough, " the city on the lake," would lead to such an
inference. The climate is mild and salubrious, subject neither to
the extremes of heat and cold, nor of excessive moisture, to which
regions in the neighbourhood of lofty mountains, or near the shores
of the Atlantic, are liable. The soil is rich and generally of a
calcareous nature, except in the more mountainous parts, and, even
there, cultivation has been carried to a considerable height on the
acclivities. Agriculture is in as highly improved a state here as
in any other part of Ireland. So far back as 1779, the vicinity of
Carlow town was noticed by Young as one of the few places in which
green crops formed part of the system of rural economy, turnips
being at that time extensively planted there; though it does not
appear that they became a general farm crop till many years after.
Since 1817, agriculture, as a system, has been extending its
beneficial effects with rapid progress under the fostering care and
spirited example of some of the resident gentry.
Wheat of a
superior quality is grown in every part, barley only on some of the
most favoured soils, whilst oats and potatoes are universal; the
barley has long been celebrated and in great demand, and large
quantities are annually shipped to England; the potatoes also,
particularly those grown on the calcareous soils, are much
esteemed. Turnips are every where cultivated with success by the
gentry and large farmers; but the small farmers are generally
averse to the culture of green crops, notwithstanding the
inducement held out by several landlords of releasing them from the
payment of rent for land tilled for turnips or mangel-wurzel.
Clover seed is sometimes sown on the larger farms, and the sowing
of grass seeds in laying down exhausted land is now pretty general,
although the old and pernicious system of allowing the land to
recover by a natural process is still too prevalent; flax, hemp,
rape, vetches, &c, are occasionally sown. The pastures are
remarkably good, and although the land is not so rich as in some
parts of Tipperary and Limerick, the cattle attain a larger size
here than in either of those counties. Dairies are numerous, and
the dairy farms extensive and profitable; butter, generally of very
superior quality and much esteemed in the English and foreign
markets, is the chief produce; cheese is made only for domestic
consumption.
The dairy farmers pay great attention to the selection
and breed of milch cows. Limerick heifers were much in demand, but
a cross between the Durham breed and the old country cow is now the
favourite: some of the Durham breed are, nevertheless, highly
prized for the dairy, but they neither fatten so soon nor weigh so
profitably as those crossed with the Limerick, Devon, or Tees-water
breeds. Sheep of the New Leicester breed have been introduced at
considerable expense by some of the most spirited agriculturists,
and are now become pretty general and in high repute; they appear
to be well , adapted to the soil and climate, and bear an excellent
fleece. In the hilly districts the sheep are smaller; those in
highest repute are a cross between the new Leicester and the Kerry.
Pigs are not so generally kept here as in some of the adjoining
counties, and are mostly of an inferior kind. Draining has been
introduced by some of the gentry, but irrigation is very little
practised. The fences are far superior to those of the adjoining
counties, though in many cases the large old ditches or mounds of
earth, with a deep shough on one or both sides, are to be seen. A
kind of fence common here is formed out of the blocks of white
granite which lie scattered over a great part of the county or are
procured from the quarries; these blocks being cloven with great
regularity, the larger slabs are fixed upright in the ground, and
the lighter and longer pieces ranged transversely along the top, in
the manner of posts and rails, forming an unique and very durable
fence. Agricultural implements on the most approved principles are
generally used in every part, except the hilly districts, where the
old heavy implements may still be partially seen: the iron plough
and light harrow have been in use some years by gentlemen, and are
now in the possession of almost every farmer.
The old heavy wooden
car has given place generally to one of lighter form, with
iron-bound spoke wheels, but having very short shafts. Carts nearly
similar to those of England, with narrow wheels, are every where
used by the wealthy farmers, but the old clumsy low-backed car is
common upon the road. The whole of the county, with the exception
of the mountainous parts already noticed, is well wooded: trees
thrive well, but not every species; an oak wood is rarely met with,
although oaks flourish in the soil. The spruce and silver fir,
after having been tried for some time, were extirpated on account
of their unhealthy appearance; the soil was thought not suitable to
them. The weeping, or Hertfordshire, elm is frequently to be seen:
the elm in general germinates earlier here then elsewhere. But the
most beautiful and ornamental trees are the sycamore, chestnut,
lime, birch, and white thorn, the last of which attains a large
size: the entire level part of the county presents much the
appearance of some of the English counties. Lime is plentiful, and
the facilities of its conveyance for agricultural purposes
abundant. Fuel is equally so: coal is brought from the collieries
of Kilkenny and the Queen's county by land carriage, and turf is
procured from the small bogs in this and the adjoining counties.
Horticulture is in an advanced state; few farm-houses are without a
vegetable garden, and the scarcer kind of esculents, and likewise
flowers, are generally cultivated.
The county lies between the great eastern granite district of
the county of Wicklow and the coal formation of the Queen's county
and Kilkenny. The granite shews itself along the south-eastern
verge, in the mountainous range of Mount Leinster and Blackstairs,
where it is interrupted by the precipitous valley of St. Mullins,
but it appears again at Brandon hill, in the southern part of
Kilkenny. The coal country is surrounded by and rests upon
limestone, the strata of which, wherever examined, present
appearances extremely similar.
The description of the limestone
valley between the granite country; two miles east of the town of
Carlow, and the coal field as far westward, may serve to give a
clear idea of the general nature of this part of the country. At
the base of Browne's hill, two miles east of Carlow, the granite is
covered with stratified silicious limestone, dipping 60° west of
north at an angle of 10° from the horizon: the colour is light
greyish blue, with numerous petrifactions, chiefly bivalve shells;
it is calcined with great difficulty, and gives, on analysis, of
carbonate of lime, 95.00; of silica, with a tinge of iron, 4.50;
and of carbon, 0.50. The stratification is quite regular between
the granite country and Carlow, but with a change of colour and
character as it recedes from the mass of granite. At first it
changes to a dark blue, and madrepores are visible in it. The beds
are extremely vesicular, and their numerous cavities are coated
with a series of different fossils. On approaching Carlow, the
limestone becomes more silicious and of a deeper colour: at the
town the colour is dark or iron grey, and the texture fine-grained,
and it is sometimes polished and used for chimney-pieces: to the
west of the town the limestone is lighter in colour and much purer.
Here the Lydian stone begins to appear in quantity, both in
irregular beds and round nodules. The stone becomes still lighter
in colour and finer in quality as it approaches the west. Some
specimens from the higher quarries were found to contain solely
carbonate of lime, with a small residuum of carbon, not amounting
to a quarter per cent.
The number of petrifactions in the upper
quarry is immense, comprehending a great variety of fossil
productions. On approaching the point where the coal strata join
the limestone, the stratification is generally disturbed; the rock
becomes shivery and breaks into indeterminately angular small
fragments. The quantity of Lydian stone is greatly increased; the
actual point of contact between the limestone and coal being
scarcely visible, on account of the disturbance of the strata. The
Lydian stone appears to pass into slate clay,no division existing
between them. The succession of rocks visible at Old Leighlin, is
as follows, commencing from the bottom: dark blueish grey
limestone, 10 feet; irregular black Lydian stone, with silicious
petrifactions, 2 feet; light grey limestone, 20 feet; Lydian stone,
with numerous silicious petrifactions, 3 feet; flinty slate, in
very thin beds, the uppermost of which graduate into slate clay,
and contain balls of clay ironstone of a dark blue colour, 30 feet;
and sandstone flag, 200 feet. This stone continues to the summit of
the hill, where it varies very much in quality, and passes from
soft sandstone into soft micaceous slag, which divides into thin
laminae from one-tenth of an inch to an inch in thickness. Besides
the irregularities above described, beds of brown spar rock are met
with near the point of junction of the two formations; but they are
more frequent on the southern and western boundaries than on the
northern and eastern.
The limestone field abounds with, rolled
calcareous masses, pebbles, gravel, sand and marl, forming escars
of considerable elevation, in which the calcareous gravel and sand
frequently exhibit a stratified disposition with layers very
distinct from each other. Carlow is almost exclusively an
agricultural district. An inland trade, particularly in grain, is
carried on by the Barrow to Waterford, and by the Slaney to
Wexford. But though the county is much indebted to both these
rivers for the increase of its agricultural prosperity, neither has
any claim to be considered as belonging to it exclusively. The
former has been rendered navigable from Athy bridge, in the county
of Kildare, to the tideway at the rocks called the Scars, below St.
Mullins, a distance of about 43 miles: the total fall is 172 feet.
The navigation is chiefly in the bed of the river, except near the
several mills, where there are artificial cuts and locks: the total
extent of the new cuts is five miles; their breadth, 27 feet at the
bottom and 42 at the surface of the water. The Derry and Derreen,
branches of the Slaney, and the Burren, a branch of the Barrow, are
insignificant streams. The roads are numerous, and in general well
constructed.
Among the more remarkable relics of antiquity are a large
cromlech at Browne's hill, near Carlow, and another, still larger,
at Tobinstown; also a rath near Leighlin-Bridge and, near Tullow, a
pillar, perforated at the top and thence called Clogh a' Phoill, "
the stone with the hole." The Kavanagh family were in possession of
several curious relics of antiquity, of which the most remarkable
was an ivory horn mounted and ornamented with gilt brass, supposed
to have been the tenure by which they held the estate: it has been
deposited in the museum of Trinity College, Dublin. Another of
these is the Figeen, a kind of ring, composed of a mixture of
silver and tin; it was found in a ditch in the demesne of Borris. A
third is the Liath Meisicith, being a brass box encased with
silver, and containing extracts from the gospels written on vellum
in Latin, but in the Irish character: it is also deposited in
Dublin College. Near Cloghgrenan some brazen swords and arrow-heads
were raised out of a ford in the Barrow. Several remains of
monastic buildings still exist. The most remarkable are those of
Achadfinglass near Leighlin, Athade, Ballymoon (or, as it is called
by Archdall, Bally-Mac-William-roe), Killarge, Kilfortchean, Old
Leighlin, Leighlin-Bridge, St. Mullins, and Tullow. The remains of
a round tower were visible near the church of Kellystown, until the
year 1807, when they were cleared away to make room for a belfry.
Around Old Leighlin are numerous remains of ancient buildings,
among the most conspicuous of which are those of the venerable
cathedral; and in several parts are ruins of churches, some of
remote origin, close to which the modern churches have in many
instances been built, tending to heighten the picturesque effect.
The most remarkable of the military antiquities is Carlow castle,
built on the banks of the Barrow. In Idrone East are Ballylaughan,
called also Ballylorgan castle, whose remains retain many traces of
its former strength and importance; and Ballymoon castle, a
structure of the Knights Templars, the walls of which are of great
thickness, and sheep graze peaceably within its enclosure. Black
castle, built on the eastern side of Leighlin-Bridge, retains its
walls: near it was another fortress, built by one of the
Fitzgeralds, and named for distinction White castle. The castles of
Gilbertstown, Rathlin, Lorum, and Rathnegeragh, were in the same
barony. Clonmore castle, in Rathvilly, is in tolerable
preservation.
There are no remains of the castle of Tullow: it is
supposed to have stood near the site of the present church. The
ruins of Castle Grace are near Tullow. Clonmullen castle, of which
some traces were in existence about fifty years since, though now
obliterated by the plough, was anciently remarkable as the
residence of Donell Spaniagh, and perhaps not less so, at a more
modern period, for possessing as an inmate Ellen Kavanagh,
immortalised by Carolan in his affecting melody of Aileen a Roon,
and recently made the subject of an interesting poem by Mr. R.
Garrett, of Janeville, in this county. The habitations of the
peasantry are of a better description than in many other parts of
the country, the general appearance and habits of both sexes much
improved, and the interior of their dwellings neat and comfortable.
At Garrowhill, or Knoclcdrimagh, near the bottom of Mount Leinster,
is a chalybeate spring; but its efficacy is little known except in
its immediate vicinity.
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(Thank you to Terry Curran for providing this material)
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Carlow 1837 Part 2
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