In 1837 it lay along the road from Castlecomer on the road to Athy. It containing 116 houses and 582 inhabitants. Most people were employed in the neighbouring collieries. It had a constabulary police station. In 1837, the district of Clogh comprised parts of the parishes of Castlecomer and Rathaspeck. The Roman Catholic chapel for the district was in Clogh. The village takes its name from the Irish An Chloc which means “stone” or “stone building”. The original townsland name was Magleitid. History tells of a castle sited in the "Castle field" in the townland of Coultha; this may be where Clogh derived its name. The village is 27 km 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.
Demographic changes
As of the 2006 census, by the Central Statistics Office, the town's population, including Chatsworth, was 351. This was a 9.7% change since 2002. As of the 2016 census, the population was 344. Clogh was once a densely populated rural area, mostly due to the employment given in the many coal mines around the area. 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 Deerpark mines opened in the 1920s and at its peak employed 600 people, when the mines closed in 1969 it was a blow to the communities of North Kilkenny. The housing at that time is best described as of the bohawn type – low thatched houses with little ventilation, only three survive to this day. Many coal-mining families emigrated to Heckscherville, Pennsylvania during and after the Great Famine of 1845–1851. The Payne brothers who ran the coal pits came to the area of North Kilkenny and Laois to get miners for their mines. They provided transportation, employment and homes to those who agreed to move. The graveyard at St.Kierans in Heckscherville have some of these families interred. Many of their descendants travel to Ireland to find information on their families.
Built heritage
The first church in Clogh was built on the site of the present church in the 13th century. This replaced the ancient church that stood at Kilpatrick. The present church was built in 1826. The graveyard is large and contains monuments, including one to Michael Fenlon who constructed the first Boulton & Watt steam engine for use in the nearby Doonane Colliery. Fenlon was a lecturer in Trinity College, Dublin, he died at the young age of 36 years. Moneenroe Catholic Church was built in 1928 and cost twelve thousand pounds with the local miners contributing six thousand pounds. They also built the Moneenroe Hall, this has since been renovated at a cost of one hundred thousand euro. The Colliery Church was consecrated in 1829 and serves the Church of Ireland Community in the area.
