What is recorded here

Kilkea Castle is a fifteenth-century composite structure where a tower house, gatehouse and central building still stand together in County Kildare. Built after the area went to the Fitzgeralds, it later resisted in 1552 and held Confederate troops in the 1640s before becoming a hotel. Rooms that once watched roads and resisted invasion now host guests, carrying martial memory into ordinary hospitality.

A composite structure consisting of a tower house at the SW corner, a gatehouse to the N and a central two-storey building running E-W between keep and gatehouse, with stair tower at E, adjacent to keep and central range. The exact date of construction is unknown, but the surviving features seem to indicate a fifteenth century date. Probably constructed after 1483 when the area was granted to the Fitzgeralds. It was garrisoned in 1552 during Baltinglass Revolution and occupied by Confederate forces in 1645-7 (Killanin and Duignan 1967, 154; JKAS 1891-5, 3). It was extensively restored in 1849, and is now used as a hotel. (Bradley et al. 1986 vol. 3, 270-79).

Built by the FitzGerald family, 12th-century lords of Kildare, in the late 12th or early 13th century. Kilkea Castle is important as one of the best-preserved examples of a medieval tower house in Ireland and reflects the power and influence of the FitzGerald dynasty in the region.

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