Arklow, port, seaside resort, and urban district on the Irish Sea coast in County Wicklow, southeast Ireland. In 431 St. Palladius, a Christian missionary, landed at the present site of Arklow. The Vikings had a settlement there, and the town was granted by John of England (then the lord of Ireland) in 1189 to Theobald Fitz-Walter, lord butler of Ireland. It was an English stronghold during the late medieval period, and there are remains of a 13th-century Dominican friary and fragments of the Butler castle. Small boats, pottery, and fertilizers are manufactured there. Pop. (2006) 11,712; (2011) 12,770.