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 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 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.
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