Leighlinbridge (; ) is a small town on the

River Barrow The Barrow ( ga, An Bhearú) is a river in Ireland. It is one of The Three Sisters; the other two being the River Suir and the River Nore. The Barrow is the longest of the three rivers, and at 192 km (120 mi), the second-longest ri ...

County Carlow County Carlow ( ; ga, Contae Cheatharlach) is a county located in the South-East Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. Carlow is the second smallest and the third least populous of Ireland's 32 traditional counties. Carlow Cou ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. The N9

National primary route A national primary road ( ga, Bóthar príomha náisiúnta) is a road classification in Ireland. National primary roads form the major routes between the major urban centres. There are 2649 km of national primary roads. This category of ro ...

once passed through the village, which was by-passed in the 1980s. It now lies on the R705 regional road. It covers the

townland A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic origi ...

s of Leighlin (east bank of the river) and Ballyknockan (west bank). The village features narrow winding streets, grey limestone malthouses and castle ruins overlooking a 14th-century bridge across the River Barrow. Leighlinbridge has won the National Tidy Towns Competition, has come first in the Barrow Awards, been an overall national winner in Ireland's Green Town 2000, and represented Ireland in the European "Entente Florale" competition in 2001.

Places of interest

Leighlinbridge Castle Leighlinbridge Castle, also called Black Castle, is in the village of Leighlinbridge, County Carlow, Ireland, on the River Barrow. The early castle was built c.1181 for the Normans. In the 1540s a Carmelite friary was converted into a new for ...

, also called Black Castle, was one of Ireland's earliest

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

castles. A 50 ft tall broken castle tower and

bawn A bawn is the defensive wall surrounding an Irish tower house. It is the anglicised version of the Irish word ''bábhún'' (sometimes spelt ''badhún''), possibly meaning "cattle-stronghold" or "cattle-enclosure".See alternative traditional spe ...

wall are all that can be seen today.

Leighlinbridge meteorite

On the night of 28 November 1999, a loud detonation and bright fireball was observed over

Carlow Carlow ( ; ) is the county town of County Carlow, in the south-east of Ireland, from Dublin. At the 2016 census, it had a combined urban and rural population of 24,272. The River Barrow flows through the town and forms the historic bounda ...

for several seconds. An elderly lady in Leighlinbridge recovered a fusion crusted individual meteoritic rock on 12 December 1999, and later two more specimens were found. It is now officially called the "Leighlinbridge" by the International Meteorite Nomenclature Committee. The meteorites, totalled 271.4 grams in weight.

Sports

Gaelic games

In Leighlinbridge there are three GAA clubs, Naomh Bríd, Leighlinbridge and Micheal Davitts. Naomh Bríd are a hurling club who compete in both the

Carlow Senior Hurling Championship The Carlow Senior Hurling Championship is an annual hurling competition contested by top-tier Carlow GAA clubs. Mount Leinster Rangers are the title holders (2020) defeating Ballinkillen in the Final. History Since 1927, with the exceptio ...

and the

Carlow Intermediate Hurling Championship The Carlow County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) ( ga, Cumann Luthchleas Gael Coiste Ceatharlach) or Carlow GAA is one of the 32 county boards of the GAA in Ireland, and is responsible for Gaelic games in County Carlow and th ...

and all underage hurling competitions. Leighlinbridge are a football club who compete in the Carlow Intermediate Football Championship. Micheal Davitts are a football club who compete at underage level in Carlow. Players from neighbouring villages Old Leighlin and Ballinabranna combine with Leighlinbridge to play for Micheal Davits.

Soccer

Vale Wanderers is the local soccer club in Leighlinbridge. They are represented at both underage and senior levels.

Education

The local primary school is Leighlinbridge N.S. The most recent report by Department of Education inspectors noted the "welcoming, supportive and inclusive school atmosphere", and the "high quality teaching, as well as the openness and reflectivity that exists amongst the teaching staff".

People

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

Patrick Francis Moran Patrick Francis Cardinal Moran (16 September 183016 August 1911) was the third Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney and the first cardinal appointed from Australia. Early life Moran was born at Leighlinbridge, County Carlow, Ireland, on 16 ...

, third Archbishop of Sydney, was born in Leighlinbridge in 1830. *

John Tyndall John Tyndall FRS (; 2 August 1820 – 4 December 1893) was a prominent 19th-century Irish physicist. His scientific fame arose in the 1850s from his study of diamagnetism. Later he made discoveries in the realms of infrared radiation and the p ...

, prominent 19th-century

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

, was born in Main Street, Leighlinbridge in 1820. *

Myles Keogh Myles Walter Keogh (25 March 1840 – 25 June 1876) was an Irish people, Irish soldier. He served in the armies of the Papal States during the war for Italian unification in 1860, and was recruited into the Union Army during the American Civil ...

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

officer and later

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of Company I,

U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment The 7th Cavalry Regiment is a United States Army cavalry regiment formed in 1866. Its official nickname is "Garryowen", after the Irish air " Garryowen" that was adopted as its march tune. The regiment participated in some of the largest ba ...

. Fought in

Indian Wars The American Indian Wars, also known as the American Frontier Wars, and the Indian Wars, were fought by European governments and colonists in North America, and later by the United States and Canadian governments and American and Canadian settle ...

and was killed at the

Battle of the Little Bighorn The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and also commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, Nor ...

in 1876. He was born in Orchard, Leighlinbridge in 1840.

References

External links

Website of Leighlinbridge NSLeighlinbridge Tidy Towns
{{Authority control Towns and villages in County Carlow