Athy

Athy is a market town on the River Barrow in southern Kildare. Its Irish name recalls a ford, and the crossing helped make the settlement a place of strategic and commercial importance. A bridge and castle marked the river in the town, while the surrounding farmland supplied its markets. In 1791 the Grand Canal reached Athy and joined the Barrow, opening a navigable connection toward Dublin. The existing bridge was built in 1796, as water transport gave the town a new route for goods moving through the midlands.