What is recorded here

Chair of Kildare is a steep-sided earthen mound on a cliff-edged terrace in County Kildare, commanding a narrow pass between Grange Hill and Dunmurry Hill. Local tradition associates it with the Earls of Kildare, and a shallow square depression on its surface may mark the remains of a castle. The mound still rises above a lower terraced area, preserving the shape of a place once built to be seen, defended or remembered.

Prominently sited on a narrow cliff-edged terrace on the SW slope of Grange Hill (OD 743 feet) and commanding a narrow pass between Grange Hill and Dunmurry Hill (OD 769 feet) to the SW. The monument is named for and associated in local tradition with the Earls of Kildare. A fairly well-preserved, though partly overgrown, high, steep-sided, flat-topped, circular, earthen mound (diam. at base 21m; diam at top 9m; H 2m at NE-5.5m at SE) carries a shallow, square depression (dims. L 4m; Wth 4m; D 0.6m) on the SW surface which may be the remains of a castle (KD017-028002-). A lower, sub-rectangular area (dims. L c. 28m NW-SE; Wth c. 26m) abuts the mound at SW and is defined by a low scarp (H 0.4-1m). It is terraced, with the slightly higher NE quarter, abutting the mound, retained by a low grassed-over stone wall (Wth 3.7m; H0.2-0.7m). A townland boundary wall runs NE-SW over the NW of the monument. Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 10 June 2011

A portal dolmen dating to the Neolithic or Early Bronze Age; its strategic location suggests possible ritual or territorial significance.

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