Ireland’s west coast counties are as rich in culture as they are in dramatic scenery. But midland counties are no poor relations, and they lack nothing in historical monuments and culturally important sites. Arguably the most famous are Newgrange and Clonmacnoise, but turn off any motorway and it won’t be long before you come across some real gems. One little expedition took us off the M4 not far from Dublin.
Carbury Castle, Co. Kildare
The land on which the castle stands formerly belonged to a branch of the Southern Uí Néill, and the name Carbury relates to a member of that family. The Norman expeditions that took place between 1169 and 1171 were certainly empowered by battle proven knights, mounted archers and well armoured heavy cavalrymen, but their greatest technological advantage was the motte-and-bailey fortification. They were easy to build, required unskilled labour, and as footholds they allowed the Normans to raid and subdue local areas before building more permanent stone castles.
Carbury Castle began as a motte-and-bailey and it was constructed by Meilyr FitzHenry, a high-born Norman knight, after he was granted the land by Strongbow in the 12th Century. The raised earthen motte is very obvious and would have provided excellent observation over the land it claimed. Sometime in the 14th Century the land passed into the de Bermingham family and they built the first stone castle. After the Reformation and subsequent plantation of nearby Offaly and Laois by Mary 1, the land came into the hands of the Colley family. They extended and modernised the castle, which included the conspicuous chimney stacks and large mullioned windows. The castle was attacked and badly damaged during the Nine Years War, and the title was eventually passed, via marriage, to the Pomeroy family. They abandoned Carbury sometime in the 18th Century. Thus ended the history of Carbury Castle, from its motte-and-bailey origin to the ruins of a fortified manor house that still commands an imperious view of the surrounding Kildare countryside.
The Bog of Allen stretches across six counties and covers almost 1000 square kilometres. Its origins began around 10,000 BP, from shallow lakes left behind by melting glaciers. Despite industrial harvesting, the bog is a unique environment that supports entire ecosystems of flora and fauna. Thanks to preservative qualities in peat there remains an important archaeological record, such as bog bodies, dugout canoes, jewellery, bog butter and ancient wooden walkways that allowed safe crossing (the word bog comes from the Irish word bogarch, which means soft). The bog also contains a valuable environmental record in pollen and plant fossils. Industrial peat harvesting ended in 2019, and Bord na Móna will cease making peat briquettes in 2024.
