These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
An Tulach· Irish · main form · validated name
Tullow· English · main form
Place & story
A bridge with a recorded date
The 1837 entry describes Tullow on the Slaney, with a five-arched bridge carrying an inscription for 1767. Lewis uses both Tullow and Tullowphelim and locates the town in Rathvilly barony. A bridge inscription is a useful dated reference, but it does not imply that every part of the later structure belongs to that campaign. The river crossing explains the town’s position without requiring an unsupported full-name translation.[2]
Castle, religious house and later uses
The directory describes an early castle and an Augustinian foundation, then follows dissolution, warfare and the loss or reuse of buildings. It records a stone cross as the remaining religious relic in its own period and repeats a report that materials had been reused for barracks. Such observations belong to 1837 and need independent checking before they are used as a present-day inventory. A site’s continued importance does not guarantee survival of its earliest structures.[2]
Markets beyond the centre
Lewis describes a substantial grain market, milling and brewing, with the town’s outskirts extending into Ardristan and Killerig parishes. Its parish description even includes detached townlands in Wicklow. The Catholic district had a different set of component parishes again. Those overlaps make precise locality particularly useful for family research. Preserve a townland, denomination and original address rather than assuming that town, civil parish and church district all used the same boundary.[2]
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
Tullow — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Tullow, Carlow
Published census settlement populations
4,673people · 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.
placenames