What is recorded here

Donadea House stands on a low eastern rise in Kildare, built in 1624 around a fifteenth-century tower and marked by an armorial plaque. It survived the destruction of 1641, reappeared through rebuilding, gained an eighteenth-century extension, and took a bowed centre in the nineteenth century. The Aylmer name belongs to the land from the fifteenth through the twentieth century, while the house itself keeps changing shape like a memory refused by forgetting.

On a low, E-facing rise in the Coillte-owned Donadea Forest Park; formerly Aylmer land which the family held 15th century - 20th century (Killanin and Duignan 1967, 372). The erection of the house (incorporating a 15th century tower house (KD009-015001-) in 1624 is commemorated by an armorial plaque (KD009-015003-). It was 'destroyed' in 1641, subsequently rebuilt, extended in the 18th century and further remodelled in the 19th century, with the addition of a bowed centre by Richard Morrison. (Aylmer 1930, 382; Aylmer 1999, 41-55; Bence-Jones 1978, 104). Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 10 June 2011

The fortified house in Donadea Demesne was built by the Aylmer family, who held the land from the 15th to the 20th century. It is remembered as part of their long-standing local influence and as an example of late medieval defensive architecture in Ireland.

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