Historic Sites in County Carlow

Ten sites, and they run from the neolithic to the 1850s. Brownshill Dolmen sits in a field about 3 km east of Carlow town, a granite capstone of over 100 tonnes propped on uprights roughly 5,000 years ago; it has never been excavated, costs nothing and has no gate, so you can walk up to it at any hour. Carlow Cathedral is in the town itself, finished in 1833 with a 46-metre lantern tower modelled on the Belfry of Bruges, Franz Mayer glass and John Hogan’s marble monument to Bishop Doyle inside.

Most of the rest lie south and east of the town. Borris House, still lived in by the MacMurrough Kavanaghs, opens only on scattered days, mostly in summer, so check the dates before driving down. Myshall, on the Mount Leinster Heritage Drive, keeps the Adelaide Memorial Church, a shrunken Salisbury Cathedral with Harry Clarke and Evie Hone glass; you ring the keyholder to get in. Aghade Bridge and the Aghade Holed Stone are both a few miles south-west of Tullow and pair up into one short loop.

St Mullins, down on the Barrow below the Blackstairs, and Old Leighlin’s St Laserian’s Cathedral are both free, and both are largely open ground, so dry weather helps when the interest is graveyards, wells and river bank. Dunleckney Manor, near Bagenalstown, is private and not open to visitors.