Clonegal, officially Clonegall ( ; ), is a village in the southeast of

County Carlow County Carlow ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county located in the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region of Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. Carlow is the List of Irish counties by area, second smallest and t ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. It is in a rural setting, close to the border between counties Wexford and Carlow, from Bunclody,

County Wexford County Wexford () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was ba ...

and from Carlow town. It is just over a mile north of where the

River Slaney The River Slaney (; ) is a large river in the southeast of Ireland. It rises on Lugnaquilla Mountain in the western Wicklow Mountains and flows west and then south through counties Wicklow, Carlow and Wexford for 117.5 km (73 mi), ...

and the River Derry meet. Clonegal has a much smaller "twin" village across the River Derry in

, Watch House Village. The village is served by a primary school, and is the centre of an agricultural hinterland.

History

Evidence of ancient settlement in the area includes

ringfort Ringforts or ring forts are small circular fortification, fortified settlements built during the Bronze Age, Iron Age and early Middle Ages up to about the year 1000 AD. They are found in Northern Europe, especially in Ireland. There are ...

bullaun stone A bullaun (; from a word cognate with "bowl" and French ''bol'') is the term used for the depression in a stone which is often water filled. Natural rounded boulders or pebbles may sit in the bullaun. The size of the bullaun is highly variable ...

and

holy well A holy well or sacred spring is a well, Spring (hydrosphere), spring or small pool of water revered either in a Christianity, Christian or Paganism, pagan context, sometimes both. The water of holy wells is often thought to have healing qualitie ...

sites in the surrounding

townland A townland (; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a traditional small land division used in Ireland and in the Western Isles of Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of medieval Gaelic origin, predating the Norman invasion, and mo ...

s of Clonegall, Abbeydown and Huntington. Huntington Castle, also known as Clonegal Castle, is a 17th-century

tower house A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, to command and defend strategic points ...

close to the village centre. Built by Laurence Esmonde, 1st Baron Esmonde on the site of an earlier (possibly 15th century) structure, Huntington Castle was further extended in the 18th and 19th centuries. Clonegal's

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland (, ; , ) is a Christian church in Ireland, and an autonomy, autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the Christianity in Ireland, second-largest Christian church on the ...

church, St Fiaac's, was built on the site of a much earlier church and ecclesiastical enclosure. The nearby rectory, now a private house, was the residence of the local

yeomanry Yeomanry is a designation used by a number of units and sub-units in the British Army Reserve which are descended from volunteer cavalry regiments that now serve in a variety of different roles. History Origins In the 1790s, following the ...

commander during the 1798 Rebellion, and several

United Irishmen The Society of United Irishmen was a sworn association, formed in the wake of the French Revolution, to secure Representative democracy, representative government in Ireland. Despairing of constitutional reform, and in defiance both of British ...

prisoners were reputedly hanged in a neighbouring yard at what is now known locally as the "Hanging Arch". The local

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church, St Brigid's, was built . There were once eleven malt houses in and around the village, along with a wool and corn store, a police station and other shops. Kildavin/Clonegal GAA club was formed in 1914. Clonegal won the "tidiest village" category in the 2014 and 2015 National Tidy Towns competitions.

Demographics

According to the 2006 Census, Clonegal had a population of approximately 280, an increase of 20% since the 2002 Census. As of the 2022 census, the population was 249.

Notable people

* Peter Murphy, radio and television broadcaster, was from the area. * Patrick O'Donoghue, the 19th century

Irish nationalist Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of cult ...

revolutionary and journalist.

References

{{Authority control Towns and villages in County Carlow

History

Demographics

Notable people

See also

References