Chair of Kildare, Carrickanearla, Co. Kildare

Co. Kildare |

Masonry Castles

Chair of Kildare, Carrickanearla, Co. Kildare

In the Chair of Kildare, County Kildare, the remnants of what local tradition holds to be a castle can be found atop Carrickanearla hill.

The site was documented in a 1674 survey of the estate of John, 18th Earl of Kildare, which described 'a Peace of An old Castle upon a high hill betwixt two mountains'. Today, visitors to this elevated position between two mountains will find subtle but intriguing evidence of this former stronghold.

The most prominent feature is a mound marked by a square depression measuring four metres on each side and roughly 0.6 metres deep on its southwestern upper surface. This depression is partially retained by a low stone wall, now covered in grass, standing about 0.6 metres high and just over a metre wide along the southwestern edge. Additional collapsed walling extends for five metres in a north-northwest to south-southeast direction on the eastern downslope, rising to about 0.7 metres in height and spanning nearly three metres in width.

Perhaps the most compelling piece of evidence for the castle's existence lies in the field northeast of the monument: a well-dressed and chamfered arch stone, an architectural fragment that would have once formed part of the castle's structure. This carved stone, along with the wall remnants and the historical documentation from the 17th century, paints a picture of a fortification that once commanded this strategic hilltop position in medieval Kildare.

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