JAUNTING CART – Enniskerry, County Wicklow, Ireland – 1903

This image is from an old stereocard card.  When I first saw the horse and cart, I assume it was probably taken in Killarney, Kerry where jaunting carts have been showing tourists the sights for many, many decades.  However, the landscape in the background did not look a lot like Kerry.  This was taken near Enniskerry in County Wicklow, which is a village that was maintained by the Powerscourt family for several hundred years.  Their country estate, also called Powerscourt, is very near the village.  The cart is known as an “outside cart” because the wheels are inside the seats, not on the outside.  The design is known as typically Irish, though it was invented by an Italian living in Clonmel in County Tipperary.