Tara Hill in County Wexford

Tara Hill in County Wexford, Ireland

Tara Hill is an isolated hill in northernmost County Wexford in southeastern Ireland. It is the most prominent landmark in an area where the ancestors of James Carty (c.1782-1859) of Essex Junction, Vermont may have originally come from. Geologists think it is the intrusive rhyolitic roots of a deeply eroded volcano that during the Ordovician era, 400 to 450 million yeas ago, spread ash over this part of Ireland. The hill rises some 830 ft (253 m) above the surrounding flat farmlands, and overlooks the Irish coast on its east side. It is easily confused with the far better known Hill of Tara of County Meath, which is the traditional seat of the ancient High Kings of Ireland, but which by comparison to its Wexford namesake rises only 276 ft (84 m) above its surrounding landscape. Although James Carty may or may not have been born in County Wexford, cousin matches from autosomal DNA data strongly indicate that the Tara Hill area of County Wexford represents the ancestral roots of him, and his descendants.

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Tara Hill as seen from its north side looking south towards the small embayment and beach at Courtown. Note the rock outcrops of rhyolite on the summit.

Above is a map of northernmost Wexford County in Ireland, with red dots that mark townlands associated with the Carty family ancestors of Dublin-born Marie Fitzpatrick. Because Janet Carty shares 25 cM of DNA with Marie across two segments (a 4th- to 5th-cousin genetic match), Janet and Marie probably share a common ancestor who bore the Carty surname. This Carty ancestor likely came from the area where the red dots cluster together, which is near the three-way intersection of where the Inch, Kilcavan and Kilgorman parishes come together, and which sits a little more than 2 miles to the NNW of Tara Hill.