Carlow town, County Carlow

Next stop, Carlow town. I paused here to take a photograph of a residential street just because I was always, and remain, fascinated by the colourful front doors that are so popular in Ireland. I suppose it makes sense to have an easily perceived entrance in a country that is frequently rainy and misty and where everything is made out of grey stone. Even so, the sight of a bright red or blue or green front door always cheers me up just a little.


Carlow was also the first of several towns on this trip where there are still canals with locks in good working order. Perhaps it's just the excitement of an upcoming trip to Panama in October, but for some reason I just like canals.

Carlow is yet another Irish town with a long and troubled history. The area has been inhabited for thousands of years and Carlow Castle, below, was constructed in 1180 by William the Marshall, Earl of Pembroke and Lord of Leinster to guard the river crossing. In the mid 1600s the town was besieged and taken by the English. Again in the late 1700s Carlow was the site of terrible conflict when hundreds of people were massacred after an unsuccessful attack by Irish forces.

The castle survived all of this drama only to be partly demolished by its owner in 1814 to make way for a lunatic asylum. Today its remains sit right in the middle of the modern town in that strangely European way that ruins have of popping up unexpectedly among the apartment buildings and office blocks.

Weirdly, in April this year Carlow became the first Irish town to be completely wireless broadband enabled. Had I known at the time about the Wi-Fi mesh network in Carlow it's entirely possible that a few of you might actually have received an email from me in the last few weeks.