|
|
|
|
Barberstown Castle |
 |
Barberstown Castle, built in the 13th
Century, is the only 4 Star Irish Castle
“with 5 Star Quality” which boasts close
proximity to Dublin City Centre and
Dublin Airport (both 30 minutes away).
Nestled on 20 acres of surrounding
gardens, Barberstown was one of the
first great Historic Irish Country
Houses to display its splendour to the
outside world when it opened as a hotel
in 1971. It has maintained a unique
elegance of design over eight centuries
by sympathetically blending its
Victorian and Elizabethan wings with the
original Castle Battlement of 1288. To
be highly recommended by Fodor's Choice
Distiction 2010, The Good Hotel Guide
and Michelin Guide are great accolades
as all of these guides are totally
independent and a hotel in question
cannot pay to be inlcluded.
|
|
|
|
Castletown House, Celbridge, Co Kildare |
 |
Castletown House is Ireland's largest and earliest Palladian style
house. Built between 1722 and 1729 for William Conolly, Speaker of
the Irish House of Commons and the wealthiest commoner in Ireland.
The façade was almost certainly designed by the Italian architect,
Alessandro Galilei, while the Irish architect Sir Edward Lovett
Pearce added the wings. Fortunately the house was saved in
1967 when along with 120 acres of the demesne lands it was
purchased by the Hon. Desmond Guinness. |
|
|
|
Leixlip Castle, Main Street, Leixlip, Co Kildare |
 |
Leixlip Castle has always been the centre of Leixlip Built
on a rock at the confluence of the River Liffey and the Rye Water
was granted to the de Hereford family and dates from the Norman
Invasion of 1171 with the round tower added onto the square keep
in the 14th Century. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Wonderful Barn is a corkscrew shaped
barn built on the edge of Castletown
House Estate of the Conolly family,
which borders Leixlip and Celbridge,
Ireland. It was built in 1743 on the
Leixlip side of the Castletown Estate.
Flanked by two smaller dovecote towers,
it was built with the stairs ascending
around the exterior of the
building.Several purposes are suggested
for the unique structure. One theory is
based in the custom in Georgian times of
using doves as a delicacy when other
game or animals were not in season, and
suggest its use as a dovecote. The
height of the structure would also lend
itself to sport shooting, supporting
another theory of its use as a shooting
or game keepers tower.
However, a central hole through
each of the floors supports the
generally accepted theory of its use as
a granary. The barn was built in the
years immediately following the famine
of 1740-41, as there was a need for new
grain stores in case of another famine.
The Conollys owned Kilmacredock and
rented it out, so the barn was also
useful for their tenants. |
|
|
|
|
|
