  We study the discrete-to-continuum variational limit of the antiferromagnetic
XY model on the two-dimensional triangular lattice in the vortex regime. Within
this regime, the spin system cannot overcome the energetic barrier of chirality
transitions, hence one of the two chirality phases is prevalent. We find the
order parameter that describes the vortex structure of the spin field in the
majority chirality phase and we compute explicitly the $\Gamma$-limit of the
scaled energy, showing that it concentrates on finitely many vortex-like
singularities of the spin field.
