Laragh's castellated house began as a military barracks. Its surviving mill and connections with Iseult Gonne and Francis Stuart add other chapters to the village's history beside Glendalough.
Illustration, St Kevin's Church, Glendalough, near Laragh
⊕Recorded locationLaragh53.00947° N · 6.29991° WInteractive map supplied by OpenStreetMap.
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
An Láithreach· Irish · main form · validated name
Laragh· English · main form
Place & story
A castle made from a barracks
Laragh Castle began as a military barracks in 1804, associated with the Military Road built through the Wicklow mountains after the 1798 rebellion. Large portions of its northern and southern ranges were demolished around 1860. The remaining building acquired a distinctive castellated appearance: a tower rises above the main range, battlements edge the parapets, and a small projecting turret marks the south-west corner. Its military origins therefore survive within a house whose later architectural details give it the appearance of a romantic castle.[2]
The tall stone mill
Another substantial survivor is Laragh Mill, a four-storey rubble-stone building dated to about 1855 by the architectural inventory. Its rectangular plan, closely spaced windows and half-hipped slate roof distinguish it from the smaller buildings of the village. The inventory identifies its original use as a mill tentatively. Its scale nevertheless records a substantial investment in a working building, adding an industrial element to Laragh's landscape alongside the former barracks.[3]
People & connections
Iseult Gonne and Francis Stuart
The local heritage trail records that Maud Gonne McBride bought Laragh Castle for her daughter Iseult and son-in-law Francis Stuart. The couple lived in Laragh while Stuart developed his writing. His subsequent career took him to Germany, where he accepted a Berlin lectureship and wrote wartime radio propaganda for the Nazis. Those activities remained controversial when Aosdána elected him a Saoi in 1996. The castle links Laragh with a family whose literary and political connections extended far beyond Wicklow.[4][5]
Folklore & tradition
The lark that woke the workmen
A tradition of nearby Glendalough, recorded in Thomas Wright's nineteenth-century notes to Gerald of Wales, tells how Kevin noticed the men building his churches becoming exhausted. Their working day began with the lark's song, and the bird was singing so early that the builders scarcely rested. Kevin prayed that no lark should sing in the valley, and the story says his request was granted. The tale gives the saint an unexpectedly practical concern: the health of the labourers raising the churches.[6]
Both counts use the 2016 settlement boundary, allowing like-for-like comparison. CSO supplies the 2022 count on this older boundary for comparison only. The official 2022 Built Up Area has different boundaries.
View population figures
Laragh — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
These are the historical areas published in the 2006 census report. Boundaries may differ between censuses and from modern settlements. Legal towns, environs and suburbs are shown separately; none has been combined into a modern settlement total.
View population figures
Laragh, Wicklow — Census town, CSO 2006 report — census population
These are the historical areas published in the 1996 census report. Boundaries may differ between censuses and from modern settlements. Legal towns, environs and suburbs are shown separately; none has been combined into a modern settlement total.
View population figures
Laragh, Wicklow — Census town, CSO 1996 report — census population
Figures cover the historical town area printed in the 1986 report. Boundaries may have changed between censuses. Legal town, environs and suburb totals remain separate and differ from modern settlement boundaries.
View population figures
Laragh, Wicklow — Census town, CSO 1986 report — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Laragh, Wicklow
Published census settlement populations
342people · 2016
Settlement boundaries changed during this period. Differences may reflect boundary changes as well as population change. Where a 2011 legal-town-and-environs count is shown, it has not been recalculated onto the 2016 settlement boundary.
St Kevin's Church, Glendalough, near Laragh illustration: based on a St Kevin's Church by N Chadwick. AI-assisted watercolour and ink adaptation; cream paper margins added, incidental clutter omitted and fine details simplified. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
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