Clogh, County Kilkenny
| Clogh Irish: An Chloch | |
| County Kilkenny | |
|---|---|
 Thatched building in Clogh | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | S563786 |
| Location: | 52°51’37"N, 7°9’46"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 298 (2022) |
| Local Government | |
Clogh is a village and townland in County Kilkenny, in the ancient Barony of Fassadinin.[1]
The village is on the R426 road near Castlecomer, 17 miles north of Kilkenny city, 16 km from Carlow town, 25 km from Portlaoise, and 20 km from Athy to the north.
Clogh is in the Electoral Division of Clogh, in the civil parish of Castlecomer, in the Barony of Fassadinin, County of Kilkenny. Clogh borders the following townlands: Aughatubbrid or Chatsworth, Cloneen, Coolnaleen, Crutt, Kill, Loon, Moneenroe, Tourtane. The Electoral Division covers an area of 0.83 square miles with a population of 1,127.
History
In 1837 it lay along the road from Castlecomer on the road to Athy.[2] It containing 116 houses (mostly thatched) and 582 inhabitants. Most people were employed in the neighbouring collieries.[2] It had a constabulary police station.[2] In 1837, the district of Clogh comprised parts of the parishes of Castlecomer and Rathaspeck.[2] The Roman Catholic chapel for the district was in Clogh.[2]
The village takes its name from the Irish An Chloc which means "stone" or "stone building". The original townland name was Magleitid (Broad plain). History tells of a castle sited in the "Castle field" in the townland of Coultha; this may be where Clogh derived its name.
Clogh was historically a more densely populated area, mostly due to the employment given in the local coal mines. Coalmining began in the 1640s by Christopher Wandesforde. The coal produced was a high grade anthracite with low sulphur content. Situated in the Leinster coal–fields which spread into counties Laois and Carlow, by the late 1800s seven or eight mines existed, and in eerpark mines opened in the 1920s and at its peak employed 600 people. A number of coal-mining families from the area emigrated to Heckscherville, Pennsylvania during and after the Great Famine of 1845–1851. The mines, in the Clogh area, closed in 1969.