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markets · Saturday 5 September 2026 · Various 
Gaolhouse Food and Craft Fair Carlow
At Carlow Shopping Centre · Kennedy Avenue, Carlow, Co. Carlow
At Carlow Shopping Centre · Kennedy Avenue, Carlow, Co. Carlow
Every first Saturday of the month, the Gaolhouse Food and Craft Fair brings a reliable line-up of local makers into Carlow Shopping Centre. It is free to walk in, low on pressure, and the kind of market where you can actually talk to the person who made what you are looking at - useful for anyone who prefers buying direct from a maker rather than off a shelf, or who just wants a Saturday morning with something to browse.
Crafters sell work made from their own homes and workshops, spanning a wide range of handmade goods and food products. Each maker runs their own stall, and because it is a direct-from-maker fair, you can often order or commission a piece on the spot rather than just browsing what is on the table. The exact line-up shifts from month to month as the roster of stallholders changes, but recurring categories include hand-poured candles, jewellery, textile work, baked goods and artisan food products - a fair reflection of the range of small-scale making going on across the county. Because the fair runs indoors in the shopping centre, it goes ahead year-round regardless of weather, which matters for anyone who has been caught out by a rained-off outdoor market before. The atmosphere is relaxed, and people browse at their own pace without any pressure to buy from every stall.
Carlow town is roughly an hour south of Dublin on the M9/N9 corridor, and about 45 minutes north of Kilkenny. The shopping centre is on Kennedy Avenue, close to the town centre, with its own multi-storey car park attached, so driving in is straightforward. Carlow railway station is within easy walking distance for anyone arriving on the Dublin Heuston to Waterford line, and Bus Eireann also serves the town from Dublin and other Leinster towns, with the bus stop a few minutes’ walk from the centre.
The town itself has a compact, walkable core, with the ruins of Carlow Castle sitting right beside the River Barrow and the free Carlow County Museum on College Street nearby if you want to extend the morning. There is more to see in Carlow and across Co. Carlow.
Heading to Carlow Shopping Centre in Carlow? Carlow has plenty more to see. Read the Carlow area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.