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Odds n' Ends..! |
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Kildare, to the southwest of Dublin, is a county of bogs and plains, divided by the Liffey in the northeast
and the basin of the Barrow in the south. The bog of Allen, a huge raised bog formed over five thousand years
ago spreads to the northwest. Being so near to Dublin Kildare is one of the most populated counties in
Ireland, however it is still possible to explore its many canal villages, stately castles, houses and
gardens.
Click on the headings to find out more:
County Kildare is best known because of the nearby Curragh, a plain of over 5000 acres, which has a unique rich
limestone, soil base, famed for making the bones of horses that graze upon it very strong. As a result Kildare
is world famous as a major centre for racehorse breeding, training, and racing. It's home to the Irish Derby,
held at the Curragh racecourse, also used as a setting for a couple of scenes in Braveheart (not that you
would recognise the racecourse in the movie).
The Irish National Stud: The farm at Tully, Kildare, which is today the home of the Irish National Stud, was
the brainchild in 1900 of a Scotsman, Colonel William Hall-Walker, (later Lord Wavetree). He decided, much
against the wishes of his father, to breed thoroughbred horses at Tully. Hall-Walker's views on breeding
were initially described as either inspired, preposterous, eccentric - or a combination of all! The ten
stallion boxes with their distinctive lantern roofs stand as proof of his highly successful theories
on horse breeding and management. He believed that the stars dictated the destiny of all living creatures,
(including horses!) and therefore he thought it very important that the moon and stars should be allowed
to exercise their maximum ability to influence all living creatures, and thus skylights were incorporated
into the roofs of all the stables he built - and guess what - it worked - as his horses were the strongest
and best performing in the land. Bequeathed to the Irish state in 1943, its importance in the bloodstock
and racing world is without parallel.
But he (Lord Wavetree) did not stop with astrology for horses. A devout disciple of everything Japanese,
he brought two of Japan's most renowned landscape architects to Ireland in 1906 to set out a spectacular
Japanese Garden - also including a stunning Zen mediation garden. Today, these Japanese gardens are one
of the most visited attractions in Ireland. The symbolism of life in the Japanese gardens traces the
journey of a soul from Oblivion to Eternity. The human experiences of the soul's embodiment as it
journeys through the paths of life are displayed in the symbolic surrounds of each of the twenty
stages throughout the garden. Each stage absorbs the mood and atmosphere of its representation.
Ardscull Motte is 4 miles north of Athy. Sitting on top of a hill, this massive earthwork consists of a
tall round motte about 35 feet high, surrounded by a ditch and a bank. Traces of a bailey can be seen
on the north side, where it was probably erected at the end of the 12th century, but it is first
mentioned in the historical sources when it was burned in 1286. It was used by Edward Bruce in 1315 to
defeat a strong English army. Stone buildings at the top may have been added just prior to 1654, but
these have vanished.
Moone High Cross - One of the most famous and beautiful of all the high crosses, it is 8 miles from Athy in
the demesne of Moone Abbey House, besides the picturesque little village of Timolin. The cross is over 17
feet high and has 51 sculptured panels depicting scenes from the Bible.
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it." - Old Irish saying.
Kildare Cathedral stands on the site of a church, which was razed sometime in the 9th century. Succeeding
churches were also destroyed, with a new cathedral built by Ralph of Bristol around 1223. In the rebellion
of 1641 this was burned and destroyed, but towards the end of the century, part of it was rebuilt. The
remainder was rebuilt in 1875. One of its distinguishing features is the three light window, which depicts
scenes from the three Saints of Ireland - Patrick, Brigid and Columcille. Anecdotal folklore suggests that
Kildare is where St. Brigid is supposed to have founded her first convent and that the cathedral was built
on the site of her convent.
Castletown House was begun between 1721 and 1722 for William Conolly (1622-1729), the son of a Donegal
innkeeper whom through his extremely "cunning" dealings in forfeited estates after the Williamite wars had
made himself into the richest man in Ireland. It was Conolly who instigated the building of Parliament House
on College Green, the first of its kind in Europe. The design of the house was entrusted to the Florentine
Alessandro Galilei (1691-1737), best known for his work on the Lateran Basilica in Rome. It is not known
precisely how much of Castletown House is Galilei's work, but he was certainly responsible for devising
the overall scheme of the centre block, which was flanked by colonnades to lower service pavilions in the
manner of Palladio's villas in the Veneto - a concept that was completely new in Ireland and later became
the inspiration for 18th century Georgian architecture.
Castletown's interior was largely created during the time of Tom Conollys, the Speaker's great nephew, who
inherited the property in 1758 when he was twenty-four. That same year he married fifteen-year-old Lady
Louisa Lennox, daughter of the second Duke of Richmond, whose older sister Emily had already married James,
the Earl of Kildare, and was living nearby at Carton. (Note: "Days of Our Lives" Circa 1700s - keep it in
the family we say - the bewitching Lennox sisters were also great-granddaughters of King Charles II and his
French mistress!) However he (Tom Conolly) was reputed to have a weak, indecisive character, but his 15 year
old teenage bride Louisa was a real dynamo and immediately set about completing the house. Alterations and
improvements to the house during the period of 1760 to 1766 included the creation of the dining room and
work on the red and green drawing rooms. The green drawing-room, formerly the saloon, has been restored
with green silk copied from the original fabric (1765) and gilded fillet copied from Chamber's design for
the fillet in the gallery at Osterley Park. Tom Conolly died in 1803 but Louisa (now Lady Louisa) lived on
for many years. She eventually died in 1821, in a tent on the lawn in front of Castletown, as it was her
wish that she should go out looking at the house she had loved so much.
Footnote: Lady Louisa Lennox, who (along with her sisters Caroline, Emily and Sarah) featured in Aristocrats,
the author Stella Tillyard's acclaimed family chronicle of 18th Century England and Ireland, which the BBC
made into a blockbuster television serial.
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