Things to do in County Kildare

Kilkea Castle is situated overlooking the Killeshin hills in 100 acres of woodland and gardens, 3 miles from Castledermot in the west of Ireland. Kilkea Castle is a refurbished grey stone crenellated castle built over four floors with two storey wings and is set in formal medieval gardens. Facilities The castle is now a hotel with an 18 hole golf course. It provides 35 unique guest bedrooms and suites. The hotel is furnished in traditional style and has its own leisure centre and swimming pool, sauna, steam room and gym as well as a choice of three dining rooms offering contemporary and traditional cuisine along with two bars. The hotel is able to arrange wedding receptions, for a truly grand affair the wedding couple and party can have exclusive use of the hotel and all its facilities. The hotel caters for up to 200 guests in a choice of reception suites and the hotel's wedding planner can also offer advice on all aspects of the special day. The bridal suite is situated high in one of the castle's turrets with traditional four poster bed and separate living rooms for extra luxury. The original motte and bailey were built in 1181 by Sir Walter de Riddlesford and through marriage the castle became the family home of the Fitzgerald's for over 700 years. When the family moved out of the castle to reside at Carton House the castle was leased to a number of different tenants including a Jesuit Order, Thomas Reynolds a silk merchant from Dublin and the 8th Duke of Leinster. One of the castle's most unusual inhabitants was Gerald the 11th Earl of Kildare. The Earl was sent away to be educated in Europe where he became interested in alchemy. On his return his neighbors believed that he possessed magic powers and gave him the name of the 'Wizard Earl'. The Fitzgerald family finally sold the castle in the 1960's when it was transformed into a hotel. Legends Legend has it that the castle is haunted by the 'Wizard Earl' who returns every 7th year riding on a white horse.

Castletown House is one of the largest and most architecturally significant country houses in Ireland, widely regarded as a landmark achievement of Palladian design on the island. Located in Celbridge, County Kildare, just a short distance southwest of Dublin, it stands as a monument to the ambitions of the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy at the height of its cultural and political confidence in the eighteenth century. The house is managed by the Office of Public Works and is open to the public, making it one of the most accessible great houses in Ireland and an essential destination for anyone with an interest in Georgian architecture, Irish social history, or the decorative arts. The house was built for William Conolly, the Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, who commissioned it around 1722. Conolly was reputedly the wealthiest man in Ireland at the time, having made his fortune through land dealings in the aftermath of the Williamite wars, and Castletown was intended to be a visible expression of that wealth and status. The design is attributed primarily to the Italian architect Alessandro Galilei, who provided the initial Palladian façade, with the Irish architect Edward Lovett Pearce later contributing to the interior development and the colonnaded wings. The result is a house of extraordinary formality and grandeur, a deliberate statement in stone. Conolly died in 1729 before the house was fully complete, and much of the interior work continued under his widow Katherine and, later, under his great-nephew Tom Conolly and Tom's wife Lady Louisa Lennox, who transformed the interiors into the refined and elegant spaces visitors see today. Lady Louisa Conolly was perhaps the most important figure in the house's cultural development. She oversaw major decorative campaigns in the second half of the eighteenth century, including the magnificent print room — one of the last surviving examples of its kind in Ireland — where Georgian ladies of leisure would paste printed engravings directly onto the walls in fashionable arrangements. She also supervised the completion of the celebrated Staircase Hall with its extraordinary cantilevered staircase and Pompeiian-style decorative plasterwork. Louisa was a significant social and humanitarian figure too, sheltering refugees during the 1798 rebellion and maintaining a lively correspondence with notable figures of the age. Her presence still seems to permeate the house, and her story gives it a warmth and human depth that pure architectural tourism rarely provides. The grounds contain several remarkable follies and estate structures that are worth exploring in their own right. To the north of the house, the Conolly Folly rises above the surrounding landscape — a triumphal arch topped by a flamboyant obelisk, built around 1740 by Widow Conolly partly as famine relief work to give employment to locals following a particularly harsh winter. To the south of the house lies the Wonderful Barn, a distinctive corkscrew-shaped tower granary from 1743, another structure built during a period of food scarcity to provide labouring work. These two structures, taken together, say something quietly profound about the contradictions of Ascendancy Ireland, where monumental architectural whimsy and practical charity became entangled in the same projects. Approaching the house along its long straight avenue, the visitor is immediately struck by the sheer scale and composure of the building. The central block is a vast, austere limestone façade of thirteen bays rising three storeys, anchored on either side by curved colonnades sweeping out to flanking wings. There is nothing fussy about the exterior — it has the cool, measured confidence of a building that knows exactly what it is. Inside, the rooms move from restrained Georgian elegance in the earlier sections to more exuberant rococo and neoclassical decoration in the spaces finished under Louisa's direction. The Long Gallery running the full width of the top floor is one of the most spectacular rooms, with its Pompeian-painted ceiling and walls of deep blue, a room that feels simultaneously intimate and vast. The surrounding landscape is the gentle, well-watered country of north Kildare, with the River Liffey running through the estate grounds. Celbridge itself is a modest commuter town that has grown considerably in recent decades, but the estate grounds — which extend to several hundred acres — provide a convincing sense of seclusion once you are within them. The mature parkland trees, the formal avenue, and the river walk combine to make the estate grounds themselves a pleasurable destination quite apart from the house. Nearby, the town of Maynooth with its university and castle is just a few kilometres away, and the broader Kildare countryside, with its horse-racing culture and the Bog of Allen to the west, gives the area a distinct and appealing character. For visitors planning a trip, Castletown is straightforwardly accessible from Dublin by car via the N4/M4 motorway, with Celbridge well signposted from the Leixlip area. It is also reachable by public transport, with Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus services connecting Celbridge to the city, and the house a manageable walk or short taxi ride from the town centre. Parking is available on site. The house itself is open seasonally, broadly from spring through to autumn, though opening hours and access can vary, so checking the Office of Public Works website before visiting is advisable. Guided tours are offered and are strongly recommended, as much of the house's rich history and detail is best understood with a knowledgeable guide. The grounds are accessible more freely and provide a lovely walk at almost any time of year.

Maynooth Castle is situated in the historical village of Maynooth about 30km west of Dublin. The Castle is at the entrance to the South Campus of the National University of Ireland. The castle is in ruins. Only the ruins of the keep and the main entrance gateway on the southern side remain. Most of the surrounding curtain walls have now gone. The massive keep is one of the largest of this type in Ireland. The castle now forms an entrance to Maynooth College. Facilities The partly-ruined castle is a tourist attraction, and is open to the public. Guided tours are available, catering for groups of up to 50 visitors on the 40 minute tour. There is an exhibition on the castle history housed in the Keep. From time to time, Maynooth hosts various exhibitions, concerts and lectures. The castle is open every day from June to September (check with the castle for opening hours). It is also open on Sundays and Bank Holidays in October. Maynooth Castle was built in the early 13th century, and was the home of the Fitzgerald family (the Earls of Kildare) until 1535. The original keep, built around 1210, was one of the largest in Ireland. The castle was extended and remodeled in 1426 by the sixth Earl of Kildare. The Fitzgeralds extended their lands and influence, and became one of the most powerful families in Ireland. Maynooth Castle became one of the largest and grandest Earl's castles. In 1535, 'Silken Thomas' Fitzgerald rebelled against the English crown. Thomas Fitzgerald marched to Dublin Castle and declared himself an enemy of King Henry VIII. In response, English troops led by William Skeffington attacked the castle, severely damaging it with siege guns. The Castle was captured after a 10 day siege, and the castle defenders were executed. Thomas and several of his relatives were subsequently executed in London. Maynooth Castle became a royal castle and was used by the Lord Deputies of Ireland as a residence. It was granted to the eleventh Earl of Kildare in 1552. Maynooth was taken over by the Confederates in the Rebellion of 1641. After the Civil War the castle was destroyed. The castle was abandoned by and fell into disrepair. Maynooth was taken over by the State in 1991 and restoration commenced in 2000.

Barberstown Castle is situated 18 miles from Dublin in the village of Straffan on the east coast of Ireland. The original crenellated stone castle has had the additions of wings in the Victorian and Elizabethan periods and stands in a courtyard with a fountain in its centre and gardens stretching out over 20 acres. Facilities Barberstown Castle is now a four star county house hotel. The hotel has 59 bedrooms featuring both Irish and continental antique furniture, some with four poster beds. It also has a Tearoom Reception where guests can enjoy light snacks and drinks and a restaurant serving more substantial meals. The medieval banqueting hall or outdoor courtyard; with its gothic gazebo, are both popular locations where wedding receptions are hosted. The banqueting hall having beautiful vaulted ceilings, antique gothic furniture and medieval tapestries adoring the walls. The castle was built in 1288 by Nicholas Barby on land owned by a Norman family called Fitzgerald. It was built to protect the people of Barberstown from the Ui Faelin and other clans who tried to burn down the village. The castle was confiscated in 1689 by the Earl of Tyrconnel in the name of the King, and was handed over to the Commissioners of the Revenue. They proceeded to rent out the property to Roger Kelly. In 1703 the castle and its 335 acres changed hands again, this time it was purchased by Bartholomew Van Homreigh the ex mayor of Dublin. The last wing of the house was added two owners later in the 1830's. The castle remained a private residence until 1971 when the Huddleston family were forced to sell it due to the rising costs of its upkeep; it was purchased by Norah Devlin and changed into a hotel. One of the most famous owners is modern times was Eric Clapton who purchased the property in1979 and sold it in 1987 to its current owners. Legends It is said that the body of one of the previous owners is still interned in the tower of the keep. The lease of the castle would only end when the owners' body was buried under the ground and so his relatives; who did not want to pay an increased rent, left his body on top of the ground.

White's Castle is a well-preserved fifteenth-century tower house in Athy, County Kildare, built by the White family to control the strategically important River Barrow crossing. Athy was a significant medieval garrison town on the southern frontier of the Pale, where the Barrow crossing gave access between the settled Kildare lowlands and the more turbulent Gaelic territories of Carlow and Laois. The castle served both as a private residence and as a fortification contributing to the broader defensive infrastructure of the southern Pale frontier, where periodic raids from unconquered Gaelic lands were a persistent threat. Athy today is a market town on the Grand Canal and the Barrow, serving as a gateway to the heritage landscape of the south Kildare Barrow valley.

Carbury Castle is a ruined medieval tower house situated in County Kildare, in the eastern midlands of Ireland, standing atop a prominent limestone ridge that rises dramatically above the surrounding flat bogland of the Bog of Allen. The castle is one of the more striking and evocative ruins in this part of the country, its crumbling walls silhouetted against wide open skies in a landscape that feels ancient and largely unchanged. The site is notable not only for the castle itself but for the remarkable cluster of historical features concentrated on and around the same rocky outcrop, making it one of the more archaeologically rich hilltop settings in Leinster. The ridge on which Carbury Castle stands has been a place of human significance since prehistoric times. A passage tomb or megalithic monument is believed to have occupied the hill in ancient prehistory, attesting to its importance as a high, visible landmark in an otherwise low-lying terrain. The medieval castle was built in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century, with the site closely associated with the Colley family, who were English settlers granted lands in this area. The family later changed their name to Wellesley, and this is one of the more remarkable genealogical footnotes attached to the place — Carbury Castle is connected by family lineage to the Wellesley dynasty, making it a distant ancestral site in the broader family history of Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. This connection, while sometimes overstated in popular accounts, gives the location a small but genuinely intriguing link to one of the most significant figures in nineteenth-century European history. The castle itself is a tower house ruin, roofless and open to the sky, with substantial sections of its limestone walls still standing to considerable height. Nearby on the same hilltop are the ruins of a small church, adding a further layer of history to the site and reinforcing its character as a place of longstanding communal and spiritual significance. The stonework is weathered to warm grey-gold tones, and mosses and grasses push through the crevices, giving the whole structure an organic quality as nature gradually reclaims the masonry. Standing within the ruins, the sense of exposure is striking — wind moves freely through the open walls, and the views from the elevated ridge extend across miles of flat midland countryside, bogland, and farmland stretching in every direction. The surrounding landscape is quintessentially midland Irish: wide, flat, and dominated by the enormous expanse of the Bog of Allen, one of the largest raised bogs in Europe, which stretches away to the south and west. The quality of light here is particular to this kind of open, low-horizon terrain — skies feel immense, and on clear days the visibility extends to distant hill ranges. The area is quiet and rural, with small roads, hedgerows, and scattered farmsteads forming the immediate setting. The village of Carbury itself is a small and unassuming settlement nearby, and the broader area includes other heritage features that reward exploration by those with an interest in Irish history and archaeology. From a practical standpoint, Carbury Castle is accessible by road from the N4 Dublin to Sligo national primary route, with the site located roughly between Enfield and Edenderry in north County Kildare. The castle sits on private or semi-private land and there is no formal visitor infrastructure — no car park, no signage to speak of, and no admission fee or staffed entrance. Visitors typically approach via local roads and access the hilltop on foot. The terrain underfoot can be uneven and the hillside is grassy, so sturdy footwear is advisable. The site is best visited in spring or summer when the vegetation is manageable and the longer daylight hours allow comfortable exploration, though the bare winter silhouette of the ruins against a grey midland sky has its own austere appeal. As with many informal heritage sites in rural Ireland, visiting requires a degree of self-sufficiency and respect for the surrounding private land and farmland. One of the genuinely fascinating aspects of Carbury is how much concentrated history sits in so small and unvisited a place. The combination of a prehistoric high place, a medieval tower house, a ruined church, and a tenuous but real connection to Wellington all on a single small limestone ridge, overlooking one of Europe's great bogscapes, gives it an almost improbable density of significance relative to its obscurity. It is the kind of site that rewards the independently minded traveller willing to go slightly off the beaten track in a region more commonly bypassed between Dublin and the west.