Crettyard
Crochta Ard, Co. Laois

The Ireland's Ancient East
STOP 04 / 04

Crochta Ard · Co. Laois

A south Laois crossroads on the Kilkenny border, in old coal country. The sport is the centre of gravity - GAA, ladies football, and one of Ireland's serious athletics tracks.

Crettyard is not a village in the sense of a square and a street. It is a townland and a crossroads at the junction of the N78 and the R431, hard on the border with County Kilkenny. The name is Crochta Ard, the high croft. The houses are scattered across the high ground; Carlow town is 14 km east, Kilkenny city 22 km south, and Newtown is the nearest settlement with a name on a sign.

This is the northern edge of the old Leinster coalfield. The Castlecomer plateau and the worked-out seams at Doonane and Wolfhill ran right up to here, and the first steam engine in Ireland was reputedly set to pumping water out of the Doonane mine as far back as 1740. The mining is long gone - the last colliery in the area closed in the 1960s - but the parish, the schools and the place names still carry it.

What Crettyard runs on now is sport. The GAA club is the social spine of the place, the ladies football club has produced county players and All Stars, and St Abban's athletics club has a proper 400 m track tucked behind Mayo churchyard that has turned out international athletes. If you are passing through without a match or a meeting to go to, you will likely pass through without noticing. That is honest, and it is most of the year.

Population

~56 in the townland (2011)

Founded

Old coal-country townland; GAA club formed 1960

Coords

52.8419° N, 7.1277° W

01 / 04

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

The club that holds the place together

Crettyard GAA

Crettyard GAA was formed in 1960 from the amalgamation of two smaller clubs, Fairymount and Tolerton. The new club started well, taking the Laois Junior championship in 1961 and the Intermediate in 1965. The Intermediate title came back in 1976, 1984, and again in 2005 - and in that 2005 season the club went on to win the Leinster Intermediate Club Football Championship, an extraordinary run for a borderland hamlet. They took the county Intermediate again in 2024. The grounds at Moscow, near Newtown, were bought in the 1980s and now carry two full pitches, inter-county-standard floodlights and parking for several hundred cars. The colours are green, white and gold.

Two more reasons the place punches above its size

The ladies and the runners

Crettyard Ladies football club was formed in 1974 and has won county titles across the grades, supplying players to the Laois county team and producing several All Star winners. A short walk away, behind Mayo churchyard at Monavea, St Abban's Athletic Club has been going since 1955. It runs a 400 m cinder track with tartan run-ups for the field events and a 1.4 km loop, and over the decades it has sent athletes to international level. For a scatter of houses on the Kilkenny line, that is a lot of sport per acre.

Doonane, Wolfhill and the worked-out seams

Coal country

This corner of south Laois sits on the northern lip of the Leinster coalfield, the same Castlecomer plateau that gave Kilkenny its mining towns. The seams around Doonane and Wolfhill were worked for centuries - the Jarrow seam ran deep under the older, exhausted Three-Foot seam - and during the First World War a rail line was even pushed out from Athy to Wolfhill via Ballylinan to carry the coal. The 1740 steam pump at Doonane is claimed as the first in Ireland. Commercial mining in the wider field ended in 1969. The Castlecomer Discovery Park over the border tells the story properly; here it survives in the parish name of Doonane and the lie of the land.

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Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

St Abban's track loop, Monavea The club's own loop runs around the grounds behind Mayo churchyard at Monavea, just off the main road. It is a working athletics facility rather than a tourist trail, so go when training is not on, but it is the one marked, surfaced loop in the immediate area and the ground is level and dry.

1.4 km loopdistance

20 minutestime

Crossroads to Doonane There is no waymarked heritage trail. What there is, is quiet high ground with views toward the Castlecomer plateau and the old coal country around Doonane. Lanes, not paths - watch for farm traffic, wear boots, and treat it as a wander rather than a route.

Quiet country roadsdistance

As long as you liketime

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What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Expecting a village with a square, shops and cafes

This is a crossroads and a townland, not a village centre. The nearest everyday facilities are toward Newtown and Ballylinan, or south into Kilkenny.

Arriving for a pint without checking first

Crettyard itself has no run of pubs - the social life centres on the GAA club. For a guaranteed bar, plan for Ballylinan, the Swan, or across the line in Kilkenny.

A long stay without a reason to be here

Crettyard rewards people who came for a match, a meeting, or family. As a touring base, Ballylinan or Rathdowney give you more to walk out the door to.

Getting there.

By car

Crettyard is the N78/R431 junction on the Laois-Kilkenny border. Carlow town is 14 km east, Kilkenny city 22 km south. From Portlaoise, head south and pick up the N78 toward the border; allow about 40 minutes.

By bus

TFI Local Link route 897 runs between Kilkenny and Athy and serves this corner of south Laois, with several return trips a day Monday to Saturday and a reduced Sunday service. Check the live timetable - rural frequencies change.

By train

No station. The nearest rail is Carlow (14 km east) on the Dublin Heuston to Waterford line, or Athy (north) on the same line.