History of Carlow town and county

The neighbourhood of Carlow was already settled about 6 thousand years B.C. In the early Stone Age - the Neolith - people erected tomb constructions made of stone, so called Dolmens. One of the largest in Europe, called Brownshill Dolmen, is situated on a meadow, a few kilometers outside the town.

The English name of the town derives from Gaelic Catharlach. There are many theories concerning the translation: Lake Town, Four Lakes or a Boulder on the Lake (Ceatharlough). The name certainly relates to a mouth of a small river called Burren flowing into a bigger one, the Burrow. It is where pools or, as some believe, four lakes were situated.

The oldest event, known from legends, took place about 300 B.C. The Dinn Righ fort, erected on top of a hill near Leighlinbridge, was destroyed. Another event is connected to early Christanity and the establishment of St Mullins monastery in the 7th century A.D, the ruins of which have survived until today. In the 13th century, Carlow county belonged to King John. This is when the building of the castle took place, which was mostly destroyed at the beginning of the 19th century in an attempt to transform it into a mental home.

In the 14th century, the Anglo-Norman forces of King Richard II were defeated by Gaelic King Leinster Art McMurrough Kavanagh. Carlow remained a Gaelic town for the next few hundred years.  
In 1798, during the United Irishman Rising, occurred a massacre of rebels willing to capture the town of Carlow. Many of them died in an ambush in Tullow Street and Potato Market. 640 rebels were buried in a mass grave on the west bank of the river (Graiguecullen), named after their uniforms, Croppies Grave.     
In the second half of the 19th century, the county and town of Carlow were stricken by famine connected with bubonic plague as well as other epidemic (e.g. cholera), which caused a drastic decrease in population by about 20 thousand people in the region.