Carlow, a small inland county of Ireland, in the province of Leinster, with an area of 346 sq. m. Except on the south-east border, where Mount Leinster rises to 2610 feet, Carlow is a triangular fertile level, or gently undulating plain, between the Wicklow and Wexford range of hills on the east, and the highlands beyond the Barrow on the west. The chief rivers are the Barrow and Slaney. The predominant rock is granite, covered in the middle plain, or richer tracts, by limestone gravel, on which are fine loams and pasture. In the uplands the soil is gravelly. Lower carboniferous limestone crops out in the valley of the Barrow. On the west side of the county begins the great coal district of Leinster. Barely one-third of the entire area is under oats, wheat, potatoes, and other crops. There are many dairies on the plains. Along the Barrow, which falls more than a foot per mile, are many large corn-mills. Pop. (1841) 86,228; (1881) 46,568; (1891) 40,899, of whom 88 per cent. are Catholics. Since the passing of the Distribution of Seats Act (1885) the county returns but one member to parliament. The chief towns are Carlow, Bagenalstown, and Tullow. Several engagements occurred in the county during the Irish rebellion of 1798. The chief antiquities of Carlow are cromlechs, castles, and the cathedral church of Old Leighlin. A cromlech near Carlow town has a covering stone 23 feet long, and of nearly 90 tons weight.
CARLOW, the county town, stands at the influx of the Burren to the Barrow, 56 miles SW. of Dublin by rail. It has a Catholic cathedral and divinity college, the county court-house, extensive flour-mills, and is the emporium for the agricultural produce of the district. Pop. (1851) 9121; (1891) 6619. Till 1885 it returned a member to parliament. There are remains of a castle, picturesquely situated on an eminence on the Barrow, founded in 1180 by Sir Hugh de Lacy. In 1361 the Duke of Clarence established the exchequer of the kingdom in this place. It constituted one of the boundaries of the Pale, beyond which the king's writ was not recognised by the 'Irishry.' The town grew up around this castle, which was dismantled after its capture by Ireton in 1650. In 1798 the rebels attacked the town, but were repulsed by the garrison and yeomanry, and 600 of them killed. The Barrow is here navigable for small craft to its junction with the Grand Canal at Athy.