Kilteel, Cill Chéile, Co. Kildare

Cill Chéile · Co. Kildare

Kildare's highest village, with a Crusader castle and one very old pub.

Kilteel sits at 243 metres on a ridge where the Kildare plain runs out and the Wicklow Mountains begin. The name is Cill Chéile - the church of Celé Crist, a bishop of the Cenél nEóġain who died in 727 AD. That church was documented in a 1179 papal letter. The ruins beside the tower house are the same site. There is a continuity of use here spanning thirteen centuries, and most people drive past without stopping.

The castle compound is the reason to stop. Maurice Fitzgerald, 2nd Baron of Offaly, built a Knights Hospitaller preceptory here in the 13th century on the site of the earlier monastic settlement. The Hospitallers were a military religious order - crusaders who also ran hospitals and pilgrim routes. Their Irish houses defended the colonial frontier and managed estates. Kilteel was on the southwest edge of the English Pale, watching the gap in the hills where Wicklow began. When the Dissolution came in 1539, Thomas Alen got the preceptory. A 15th-century tower house survives alongside the earlier remains, five storeys with a spiral staircase and a gatehouse. Both are National Monuments.

The village today is small and residential - a commuter settlement for Naas and Dublin, elevated enough that the views east toward the Wicklow hills are a genuine reason to drive up. Brennan's Inn has been here since at least the 1820s under various names and families; the current premises date from 1900. There is a church of St. Laurence O'Toole, dedicated in 1935. There is a small oak wood to the north, designated a Proposed Natural Heritage Area. That is Kilteel: medieval ruins, one pub, one church, a ridge, and a view.

Population

~225

Walk score

Village in five minutes; the ruins are just beyond

Founded

Church recorded in papal letter, 1179

Coords

53°14′06″N, 6°31′26″W

01 / 04

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 Kilteel Castle

A Knights Hospitaller preceptory, still standing.

The 13th-century Hospitaller foundation and the 15th-century tower house beside it are National Monuments. The chancel arch is the only Romanesque arch in Ireland with figure sculpture - Adam, Eve, David, Samson, an acrobat. Recovered from a farmhouse in 1935 and put back where it belonged.

Stories & lore → 02 The Pale frontier

The southwest corner of the English Pale, formally.

The 1488 Act of Parliament set the Pale boundary at Kilteel and Rathmore. Edward III had already written letters in 1355 ordering the marches here defended against O'Byrne and O'Toole raids from Wicklow. The village was a border post before it was a village.

Stories & lore → 03 The road east

Eight hundred feet up, and Wicklow is in view.

Kilteel sits on a ridge at the western edge of the Wicklow Mountains - the highest village in Kildare by elevation. The road east climbs from here into the hills. Dublin is twenty kilometres behind you. The air changes noticeably above the plain.

Walks & outings →

02 / 04

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

Brennan's Kilteel Inn

High altitude, turf fire, no nonsense

Traditional pub, established 1900

The pub traces its licence back to the Goslin family in the 1820s. The current building is from 1900. Antique red brick, pitch pine woodwork, Victorian fireplaces. Opens afternoons from 4pm or 5pm depending on the day. Food is soup and sandwiches. It claims to be the only pub in a parish with two racecourses - Punchestown and Naas are both within reach. That claim is accurate. Whether it matters is up to you.

03 / 04

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

The only Romanesque arch in Ireland with figure sculpture

The chancel arch

The carved stones from the church at Kilteel are not like anything else in the country. The 12th-century decorated chancel arch includes figures of Adam and Eve, David with the head of Goliath, Samson and the lion, an acrobat, two bearded faces, and figures embracing. Romanesque decoration in Ireland ran mostly to geometric patterns; figure sculpture was rare. At some point the stones were removed from the church and ended up built into a farmhouse adjoining the castle - where they stayed until 1935, when Harold Leask, then Inspector of National Monuments, had them recovered and reinstalled. They are now back in place, which is not always how these things end.

Crusaders on the edge of the Pale

The Hospitaller preceptory

The Knights Hospitaller of St John of Jerusalem arrived at Kilteel in the 13th century, established by Maurice Fitzgerald on the site of the earlier monastic settlement. They were a military religious order - founded in Jerusalem to care for pilgrims, later an armed force. In Ireland they managed estates, defended borders, and maintained the infrastructure of the colonial Pale. Kilteel sat at the southwest corner, where the mountains began and the O'Byrne and O'Toole clans raided from Wicklow. Edward III wrote letters in 1355 requiring the marches here defended. The 1488 Act of Parliament drew the Pale boundary at Kilteel specifically. The preceptory was dissolved in 1539 and granted to Thomas Alen, Clerk of the Crown. The 15th-century tower house that stands alongside it was built by whoever controlled the site by then - five storeys, barrel-vaulted basement, gatehouse, bawn. Both structures are National Monuments.

The pass that made the village strategic

The road to Wicklow

Kilteel is Kildare's highest village - 243 metres on a ridge at the western edge of the Wicklow Mountains. The road east rises from here into the hills toward Blessington and the Wicklow Gap beyond. This was the Dublin-Cork passage through the mountains, and controlling the western approach to it was why the Hospitallers were put here and why Edward III was writing letters about it. The O'Byrne and O'Toole clans held the mountains to the east; the Pale settlers held the plain to the west; Kilteel was in between. The strategic logic has dissolved. The view east toward the hills has not.

Getting there.

By car

Naas is 10 km west - about 15 minutes on the R413 and local roads. Kill is 8 km northwest. Dublin city centre is 30 km via the N81 and M50, around 40 minutes. The village sits above the plain; the roads up from Naas side are straightforward.

By bus

There is no direct bus service to Kilteel village. The nearest useful services run between Dublin and Blessington (route 65) and serve Naas - from Naas you would need a car or taxi for the last stretch.

By train

No station in Kilteel. Sallins-Naas is the nearest commuter rail stop on the Dublin Heuston line, about 20 minutes by car.

By air

Dublin Airport is 45 minutes via the M50 and N81.

Next on the tour

Co. Kildare

Kill

Eight kilometres northwest. Motorway services and a proper village behind them. The Avoca store is here if you need provisions.

Co. Kildare

Naas

Ten kilometres west. The county town, with the Curragh in range and enough to occupy a half-day.

Co. Kildare

Ballymore Eustace

Fifteen minutes south, into the Wicklow foothills. The Liffey crosses here under a seven-arch bridge. The reservoir above it drowned a valley in 1940.