Hotels in County Kildare
Ireland

Hotels in County Kildare

County Kildare is in Ireland's East Coast and Midlands. It is south of Dublin and also borders County Wicklow and County Laois as well as County Meath. Kildare is known as "the shortgrass county", revealing its fame for sheep farming in the plains to the south. It is the horsebreeding capital of Ireland and home to the Curragh Racecourse, as well as many studfarms.

Athy contains the only permanent exhibition on Ernest Shackleton, who was born not far from Athy in Kilkea House. The exhibit is housed in the Athy Heritage Centre, which has a collection of artifacts from Athy's past as well as some interesting articles from Shackleton's expeditions.

There are two racecourses near Naas. Punchestown Racecourse is just to the south east of the town, in the parish of Eadestown, and Naas Racecourse is about 1 km from the town centre. The annual Punchestown Race Festival is a major event for a whole week in April. The Oxegen music festival is also held at Punchestown in the second weekend of July.

In Castledermot there are various remains including a round tower, two high crosses and the ruins of a Franciscan friary. 5 km away is Kilkea Castle, once the residence of the Duke of Leinster, but now a hotel and health farm. The castle was built by the English Norman Hugh de Lacy in 1180, and later passed to the Fitzgeralds. Gerald FitzGerald, 11th Earl of Kildare, is said to have practised magic in Kilkea Castle which earned him the nickname "the Wizard Earl".