Historic town

The National Monuments Service's description

The following description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Carlow' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1993). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.
Date of upload/revision: 17 July 2007

Tullow is situated on the Slaney River in the east of the county. The placename is derived from Tullach, “a mound”, probably derived from the mound (CW008-045009-) which was levelled during the 1980s on the south-west side of the town. Both the surviving monuments and the documentary sources indicate that Tullow was the site of an Early Christian monastery (Not Located). After the coming of the Normans, the initial grant of Tullow appears to have been to John de Hereford for whom Hugh de Lacy constructed a motte (CW008-045002- Not Located) c. 1181 (Scott and Martin 1978, 195, 340: n.365). The date of the foundation of the borough is unclear but Empey's work on Theobald Walter would suggest that it was probably in his lifetime (i.e. before 1206). The foundation of the Augustinian Friary CW008-045001- Not Located) in 1314 suggests that there was an atmosphere of prosperity in the settlement. Although references are scarce in the later fourteenth and fifteenth centuries there is no evidence that the settlement was actually abandoned. With the revival of English interest in Ireland during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the town took on a new phase of prosperity and much of its present layout, particularly around Market Square, probably belonged to this time.

Tullow is an example of a small Angle-Norman market town. Archaeologically its importance is threefold. Firstly it is an example of a pre-Norman monastery which was developed into an Anglo-Norman town. Secondly, as an example of a small Anglo-Norman town, and thirdly, as one of the few Anglo- Norman settlements in Carlow to have survived the Gaelic revival of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The archaeological and documentary data indicates that it has been the scene of human occupation since at least the eleventh century. (Bradley 1989; 65-73)

References

Bradley, J. and King, H.A. 1990 Urban archaeological survey - county Carlow. Unpublished report commissioned by the Office of Public Works, Dublin.

Scott, A.B. and Martin, F.X. (eds) 1978 Expugnatio Hibernica: the conquest of Ireland by Giraldus Cambrensis. A new history of Ireland, ancillary publications, iii. Dublin. Royal Irish Academy.