The town of Carlow, Catherlough or Catherlogh, is situated on the banks of the Barrow, five and a half miles south-by-west of Castledermot near the junction of the above river with the Burren. The name signifies “the city on the lake,” but the sheet of water from which it derived its name has disappeared.
The castle stands on a slight eminence to the west of the town on the east bank of the river, where it commanded the ford.
The present ruins consist of two round towers, and the western wall, which measures about 105 feet in length and some 70 feet in height. One of the towers is joined to this structure, and a small portion of the north and south walls adhere to both turrets respectively.
The doors were remarkably low and narrow, and light was admitted almost entirely by loopholes.
In Thomas Dineley’s quaint diary he states that the fortress was built of freestone, and a picture in the same work represents it with gables and a high-pitched roof. It is flanked by round towers and has many tall chimneys. It appears to be surrounded by a low battlemented wall, and to have numerous little out-houses.
Like so many castles in Ireland, local tradition ascribes its erection to King John, but Eva, Strongbow’s wife, Isabel, their daughter, Hugh le Bigod, 4th Earl of Norfolk, and Bellingham, Lord Deputy of Ireland, have been mentioned by other authorities. Ryan, in his history of Carlow, deals with the likelihood of each claim, and thinks that it was most probably built by Hugh de Lacy. He is said to have erected it about 1180, but the architecture is rather that of the beginning of the thirteenth century.
The castle is mentioned in the charter of William, Earl Marshal.
In 1283 we find the repairing of the old hall, kitchen, and tower among the accounts of Roger le Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, in whose possession it then was. Among the items of expenditure are 700 nails and canvas, which were probably for the roofing of the great hall, which was covered with wooden shingles, and seems to have been difficult to keep in repair.
