KEEP WELL ON YOUR Nature Brought Doorstep to you by Carlow Sports Partnership 6 New Nature on Your Doorstep Activity Sheets for People of All Ages Under current circumstances it is very easy to choose to stay indoors and forget about exploring what wintertime has to offer outside. This initiative is brought to you by Carlow Sports Partnership in collaboration with Carlow County Council, Carlow Mental Health Association, Healthy Carlow, and Carlow Tourism. Together we worked with local outdoor and nature experts including: Bare Necessities, Pádraig Webb and Wildways Adventures to create a new series of Nature on Your Doorstep activity sheets. There is plenty to discover either within your own garden or near your home. We encourage you to get creative and engage your imagination while connecting with the green and blue spaces in your own area. There are 4 activity sheets included here and you can download all 6 activity sheets from our website: www.carlowsports.ie You can use the activity sheets also to encourage family and friends to go outdoors and please do share your discoveries with us on facebook, Instagram and twitter or send to [email protected] Síolta Walking Tour of Carlow Town by Carlow Tourism You can enjoy a leisurely audio walking tour that takes 1hr 30mins and has 25 points of interest along the way. Start by downloading the app Tours Carlow from the Play Store on your smartphone: https://bit.ly/3aAwZp5 You can click on the many tours of Carlow Town and county this app has to offer. Today we are promoting the urban walk for those living in Carlow Town.
This app was developed jointly by Carlow County Council and Carlow Tourism and now is the perfect time to stay local and explore what is on your doorstep.
To view maps of County Carlow visit: https://carlowtourism.com/maps/
An insight to your town In Carlow town the walker is presented with a rich tapestry of history dating back to a millennium and beyond, many associated famous names and an architectural heritage telling the story of the town’s evolution since the Normans first came here in the twelfth century. With a population of over 20,000, Carlow is the County town and gateway to the South-East standing at the confluence of the Barrow and Burrin rivers. Tradition has it that the junction of the two rivers once covered such a large area of ground that a lake was formed, or, as some believe four lakes, hence the name Ceatharlach or City of Four Lakes. As a strategic river crossing, the town was the scene of a number of important
FAIRGREEN battles and the Anglo Normans signalled its importance by building the great Shopping Centre Carlow Castle in the 13th century. Famous names associated with Carlow include George Bernard Shaw, the dramatist and critic whose mother Lucinda Elizabeth Gurley was born in Carlow.
4b Deighton Hall Barrow in Carlow representing the thriving 14 Scots Church 19 St Mary’s Church is building was the County Courthouse milling and distillery industry of former times. Scots Churches are rare, with only four St Mary’s Church is located in an area The famous impressionist artist Frank O’Meara was born at 37 Dublin Street on and seat of the Grand Jury until the early 1830s. known to be in existence in Ireland. Designed of long standing religious settlement, dating In 1909 local businessman Joseph C. Deighton 8b Old RIC Barracks by architect omas A. Cobden, it is a all the way back to the 6th century. e main presented this building to St Mary’s Parish for e Old Royal Irish Constabulary curiously proportioned building with a tall body of the church dates to 1727, but the www.carlowtourism.com use as a Parochial Hall. e prisoner holding Barracks housed Ireland’s major police force pediment and no windows on the façade. tower and spire reaching 195 feet was designed March 30th, 1853, sharing that birth date with Vincent Van Gogh. Check individual websites for opening times cells were located in the basement with direct prior to Irish Independence. It is decorated by omas A. Cobden, and added in 1834. 1 Carlow County Museum, Carlow access to the courtroom and Lucinda Sly was with grotesque heads and a plaque of Hercules. 15 Methodist Church e interior retains its original galleries and TouristTourist OOffiffi c e cean dand Ca rCarlowlow Li bLibraryrary tried here for the murder of her husband. In 1892, this site was secured as the home contains several interesting monuments, e museum brings to life the story of Leading from Deighton Hall is the remaining St Clare’s Church and Poor of the Methodist chapel. e new site had been including ones by neo-classical architect 9 Sir Richard Morrison. Carlow’s development through the ages. section of Bridewell Lane which ran to the Clare Monastery used as a quarry so it had to be fi lled before Items on display include the original gallows Carlow Gaol. Originally built as St Anne’s Church in building could begin. e site was fi lled by 1852 and located on the Athy Road, it fell into using rubble from buildings being demolished 20 e Cigar Divan trapdoor from Carlow Gaol used to execute e CCigarigar DDivanivan isis thethe olderolder ofof onlyonly in the town, for each load dumped at the site Lucinda Sly for murdering her husband in 5 Carlow Castle disuse and was sold by the Church of Ireland in two cigar divans in Ireland, with a Victorian 1835; the smoking pipe of Captain Myles Located at the meeting of the Rivers 1927 to the Catholic Parish of Graiguecullen. the carters were paid one penny, so it cost £5 to shop-front featuring elaborate iron panels Keogh of the 7th US Cavalry who died at the Barrow and Burrin, the castle had four 25 ey moved it stone by stone across the River fi ll the site. In 1897, building work began and below the windows. Battle of Little Big Horn; read about John feet thick towers and stood three storeys high, Barrow and rebuilt it on today’s site. the church opened Friday, April 15th 1898. Tyndall, a 19th century scientist who making it a strategic fortress which protected Unfortunately funds ran out before completion 21 Carlow College, St Patrick’s discovered the greenhouse eff ect. e building the river crossing and Carlow Town. It was so the church lacks a spire. ‘ e Poor Clare 16 Carlow Courthouse Ireland’s oldest third level catholic also houses the Tourist Offi ce, the County built in the 13th century by William Marshal Sisters’ are an enclosed order of nuns who are Designed in the 1820s by architect educational institution, fi rst opened in 1793, Library and Archive. www.carlowmuseum.ie Earl of Pembroke and Lord of Leinster, who devoted to a life of prayer and have lived in the William Vitruvius Morrison, this building once the penal laws which restricted catholic had succeeded Strongbow, leader of the Norman monastery since 1893. www.poorclarescarlow.ie is one of Ireland’s fi nest examples of ancient education were relaxed. e college educated 2 e Potato Market and Liberty Tree invasion of Ireland. From 1391 to 1395 the Greek revivalist architecture. e ancient males for the professions and for priesthood, Carlow was a market town around which Exchequer and Court of Common Pleas were 10 e Croppies Grave Roman world is symbolised by the iron and during 1793 – 2001 over 3,300 areas developed refl ecting the goods traded located in and around the Castle, thus making Following the bloody battle in the Potato railings, which are in the form of the Roman ordinations took place. e chapel of the there, like the Potato Market, Coal Market, Carlow the capital of Ireland for this period. It Market in May 1798, the bodies of the dead axe, the fasces symbolise judicial power. e Sacred Heart was erected to mark the centenary Butter Market and Haymarket. e Potato remained relatively unscathed until 1814 when were buried here in a mass grave. e croppy Courthouse has two large court rooms of the college but now functions as the College Stay in your Market was the scene of a massacre of over 600 Dr Midleton accidentally blew it up during was the name given to the United Irishmen contained within the impressive granite Library. Famous alumni include James Fintan rebels and civilians following an unsuccessful works to convert it into a modern mental after the habit of cropping their hair to mark decagonal shaped building. e cannon Lalor, the agrarian agitator and social activist, the local area. attack on the town by the United Irishmen, hospital, with only the west wall and two their allegiance. is site is commemorated is a Russian gun, captured during the Crimean Fenian John O’Leary and Frank O’Meara, the known as the Battle of Carlow during the towers surviving. with a replica high cross which stands as War and commemorates all the Carlow people impressionist painter. e 1990s saw the College 1798 Rebellion. e Liberty Tree sculpture testimony to those who died to further the who fought in the confl ict. e Courthouse return to its original role of educating the lay Stay Safe and in your designed by John Behan, commemorates the 6 e River Barrow cause of Irish freedom from a harsh regime. is operated by the Court Services under the population. Carlow College, St Patrick’s is home 1798 Rebellion and was unveiled in 1998 to e River Barrow is Ireland’s second Department of Justice. to the Carlow Art Collection, a permanent commemorate the bi-centenary. longest river fl owing for 192km from the Slieve Town Park public collection of art. www.carlowcollege.ie family bubble. Bloom Mountains to the sea. For centuries the 11 e Assembly Rooms is 12-acre park on the banks of the 17 VISUAL 3 Carlow Gaol river was used by the large mills along its banks. River Barrow features a safe and secure e Assembly Rooms were built in 1794 22 is was the town Gaol for much of the e Barrow was a signifi cant commercial and it is thought they were used by nobility Situated in the grounds of Carlow children’s playground and many pieces of College, St Patrick’s, VISUAL presents the Go explore 19th century. It was home for most of the 20th waterway until the 1960s. Since the demise of public art sculpture. and gentry of the county to host dinners, balls and musical performances. In 1899 the famous best of local, national and international work in century to ompson’s Engineering Works river transport, the Barrow Towpath, which the visual and performing arts. It is a dynamic, while adhering and is now Carlow Shopping Centre. e stretches some 114km is popular for cycling, Barrow Track Graveyard playwright George Bernard Shaw inherited 12 the Assembly Rooms from his uncle, Walter multi-disciplinary arts facility featuring four main gate of the Gaol used local granite to give walking and nature spotting. e Old Graveyard dates from 1607 and principal exhibition spaces with the main Gurly. He later donated the building to Dr an impression of great strength and solidity. was the main burial ground for the town until gallery recognised as Ireland’s largest and most to government Foley, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, to use Immediately inside the main entrance is the Wellington/Graiguecullen Bridge St Mary’s Cemetery, Old Dublin Road, opened contemporary art space. e theatre is named 7 as a school and in 1923 it opened as Carlow’s substantial Governor’s House, a three-bay, Built in 1815, the fi ve arched bridge, was in 1893. ere are a variety of headstones, after the famed playwright George Bernard named after the Duke of Wellington. Wellington Technical School. Nowadays the Assembly restrictions. three-storey building. e last woman to be slabs, metal crosses, memorials and some Shaw who had strong connections with the Bridge is the lowest bridge on the River Barrow Rooms house offi ces for Carlow County publicly hanged in the Gaol was Lucinda Sly War Commission headstones. area, his mother being a Gurly from the town. who along with her servant had murdered her and is unusual in that it crosses the end of a Council. www.visualcarlow.ie husband in 1835. small island in the river, and one of the arches, through which the canal traffi c passes, is County Carlow Military 13 MuseumMuseum 18 Town Hall and Carlow Cathedral Birthplace of Samuel Haughton slightly separated from the others. Looking Haymarket 23 4a e ‘Old Church’ in the grounds of St is is the cathedral for the Catholic Born in Carlow December 1821, Rev. upstream the original canal stores are now Carlow Town Hall is situated on the north Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin. e Dympna’s Hospital, houses the Military Samuel Haughton, Trinity College, was an home to Carlow Rowing Club, one of Ireland’s side of the Haymarket which was a main architect was omas A. Cobden and it is Museum. e museum displays artefacts from Irish scientist who invented ‘Haughton’s Drop’. oldest sporting clubs. trading centre in Carlow. e Town Hall regarded as his most outstanding church the late 18th century and details the history of In 1866 Samuel developed a more humane was designed by the church architect William building. It was among the fi rst Catholic the Irish Army, Local Reserve Defence Forces, method for execution by hanging, whereby e Old Mill Hague in 1884 and opened March 1886. cathedrals consecrated following the act 8a UN Peacekeeping, Carlow Militia, War of the neck was broken at the time of the drop, Mills, such as this one, were dotted Over the front door is the iron work of the granting Catholic Emancipation in 1829 Independence and much more. so that the condemned person did not slowly alongside the canal lock and weir on the River old gas lamp which in 1891 was converted and its construction cost £9,000 at the time. strangle to death. His birthplace is marked for electrical use. Carlow, after Dublin and by a plaque. e building is now in private London, was the third town of the British ownership. Empire to have electricity.