Naas, An Nás, Co. Kildare

An Nás · Co. Kildare

Royal seat, racecourse town, bypass survivor - still standing.

Naas has been important for roughly 1,500 years and is currently a county town with a bypass, a big Tesco, and a Lidl. That tension is the whole story. The Irish name - Nás na Ríogh, the Place of Assembly of the Kings - tells you what it was. The N7 dual carriageway that sealed off the old town centre in the 1980s tells you what happened after. Naas is still working out what it is now.

The Kings of Leinster held their royal seat here from around the 5th century until the last recognised king, Cearbhall, died in 904 AD. Their assembly mound - the Dún of Naas - stood at the heart of the settlement. The Normans arrived in the 12th century, found a perfectly good earthwork, and built a motte on top of it. The English held parliaments here in the 14th century. Saint David's Church, the Church of Ireland building in the town centre, sits on a site with Norman foundations that have been continuously used since the 1200s. History is not hard to find in Naas. It is just not particularly signposted.

The racing is different. Naas Racecourse sits a kilometre from the town centre and runs flat meetings year-round. Punchestown, four kilometres south, is in another register entirely. The Punchestown Festival - five days of National Hunt racing in late April - draws 170,000 people over the week. It is a proper Irish racing festival: Grade One sport, bad weather, full grandstands, and a sense that the entire county has reorganised itself around one event. The Bronze Age standing stone on the racecourse grounds - 23 feet of granite, older than the sport by three millennia - stays out there in the field and keeps its own counsel.

The bypass is the unavoidable subject. When the N7 was upgraded and the town centre spur cut off the old core from through-traffic, Naas lost the footfall that market towns run on. The main street has the gaps you see in every Irish town that had the same thing happen. But the harbour is still there, Hayden's trad session has been running on Tuesdays for over 25 years, and on Punchestown week the town remembers what it is for.

Population

26,180

Walk score

Town centre in 15 minutes, canal in 20

Founded

Royal seat from c. 400 AD; charter 1409

Coords

53.2170° N, 6.6630° W

01 / 10

At a glance.

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

01 Punchestown

Five days in April that the county lives for.

The Punchestown Festival is Ireland's National Hunt answer to Cheltenham - five days of Grade One racing, mud, money, and people in good coats making bad decisions. It happens four kilometres south of town every late April and the whole of Kildare shows up. If you time it right, there is nothing like it.

When to go → 02 The Moat

An earthwork that was once a throne.

The North Moat is ten metres high, nearly a hundred metres across at the base, and stands in the middle of a housing estate as if that is perfectly normal. It was the ceremonial seat of the Kings of Leinster for five centuries before the Normans arrived and built a motte on top of it. There is a bench nearby. Sit on it and think about 400 AD.

Stories & lore → 03 The canal harbour

An 18th-century harbour that almost nobody uses.

Naas had a spur off the Grand Canal built in 1789, back when the canal was how you got things to Dublin. The harbour still exists - restored stone quays, old lock-keeper cottages, mature trees, a few benches. A good twenty minutes away from the bypass noise. The town mostly forgets it is there, which is why you should go.

Walks & outings →

02 / 10

The pubs.

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

Hayden's Bar

Trad, set dancing, serious locals

Traditional pub

The Tuesday night trad session has been going for over 25 years without a break. Set dancing follows. If you want one honest pub in Naas, this is it - 9 Poplar Square, nothing fancy, the music the point.

Fletcher's

History, character, unhurried

Old-town pub

Trading since 1829. Old-style bar, a snug that has survived several decades of refurbishment elsewhere, and a lounge. The kind of pub that makes you feel the town has been here a while, which it has.

McCormack's Bar & Lounge

Weekend live music, beer garden

Oldest family pub in Naas

The family have run it for generations. Snugs off the main bar, a large beer garden that fills on summer evenings, live music at weekends. Reliable without being exciting, which is its own virtue.

Kavanagh's

Weekend music, large beer garden

Town-centre pub

Middle of town, traditional ownership, live music most weekends. Bouchon restaurant sits upstairs if you need to eat. Good for a pint on the way through.

The Random Inn (Lawlor's Hotel)

Events, country, tribute acts

Traditional pub within a hotel

Lawlor's has been in the town centre since 1913. The Random Inn is their traditional bar - busy on event nights, reliable otherwise. The hotel bar crowd is mixed; the inn crowd is more local.

03 / 10

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
Neighbourhood	Contemporary Irish	€€€	The best dinner in town by a margin. Bold Irish cooking, good produce, no fuss about the room. Book ahead - it fills on weekends and Punchestown week is a write-off without a reservation made months prior.
Bouchon	Modern European bistro	€€	Upstairs above Kavanagh's pub on the main street. Classic dishes with a European lean. The kind of place that does a good duck confit and does not overthink it.
33 South Main	Gastro-pub	€€	Food and live music in the same building on the main street. The gastropub end is solid - reliable lunch, decent evening menu. The music bar attached runs a separate schedule.
The Pippin Tree (Killashee Hotel)	Hotel restaurant	€€€	Two kilometres outside town in a country-house hotel. Local produce, formal enough to feel like an occasion. Worth the drive if you want something that is not the town centre.
Vie de Châteaux	French bistro	€€€	Overlooks the old harbour. French technique on Irish ingredients. A quiet room in a town that does not have many quiet rooms. Evenings only, closed early week.

04 / 10

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
Lawlor's of Naas	Four-star hotel	138 rooms in the middle of the town centre, trading since 1913. Three bars, two restaurants. The location is its main selling point - walk to everything, park the car and leave it. Busy on Punchestown week; book the moment the festival dates are confirmed.
Osprey Hotel & Spa	Four-star spa hotel	108 rooms, full spa, indoor pool. Herald & Devoy restaurant on site. Two miles from Junction 10 of the M7, which either matters to you or it does not. More of a destination stay than a town-centre one.
Killashee Hotel & Spa	Four-star country-house hotel	141 rooms in a Victorian house two kilometres out of town. Award-winning spa, two restaurants, 20 minutes from Punchestown. The one to book if you want to feel like you are in the countryside while remaining 35 minutes from Dublin.

05 / 10

Stories & lore.

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

The place of assembly of the kings

Nás na Ríogh

From roughly the 5th century until 904 AD, Naas was the ceremonial and political capital of the Kings of Leinster. The name Nás na Ríogh - the place of assembly of the kings - tells you exactly what happened here: inaugurations, athletic games, royal councils. The Dún of Naas, the earthwork mound at the centre of the settlement, was where Leinster kingship was performed in public. When the Normans arrived in the 12th century, Maurice FitzGerald or his son William took the existing royal dún and built a motte-and-bailey on top of it - a practical act that also sent a clear message about whose assembly this was now. The mound is still there, in a housing estate off the main street, ten metres high, almost a hundred metres wide at the base. It looks like a hill because it is a hill. It was a throne.

Five days in April

Punchestown

The Punchestown Festival runs for five days each late April and draws around 170,000 people to four kilometres south of town. It is the climax of the Irish National Hunt season - Grade One chases, hurdles, a cross-country banks course that is unique in Ireland, and a Bronze Age standing stone 23 feet tall standing in the middle of the grounds as if it owns the place, which in a sense it does. The festival started formally in 1875, though racing at Punchestown goes back further. Cheltenham is the comparison people reach for, but Punchestown has its own register - louder, wetter on bad years, and with a sense that the whole of Kildare has a stake in the outcome.

Parliaments and pale edges

The Norman town

After the Norman conquest, Naas became one of the most significant English administrative centres in Ireland - within the Pale, walled, chartered by Henry IV in 1409. Several Irish parliaments sat in Naas in the 14th century. Saint David's Church, the Church of Ireland building in the town centre, stands on a Norman site first built around 1210. Saint David's Castle dates to the same period. What remains now is a palimpsest: a Norman grid beneath a Georgian market-town layout beneath a 20th-century bypass-era one. Naas has been rewritten several times. The old layers keep showing through.

The bypass and the main street

The N7 and what it did

The upgrades to the N7 Naas Road and later the M7 motorway made Naas one of the easiest commuter towns to reach from Dublin. They also sealed off the old town centre from through-traffic in ways that changed the retail character of the main street permanently. The market-town identity - the weekly market, the agricultural trade, the footfall from passing traffic - did not survive the bypass era intact. What remains is a county-town administrative centre with a strong residential base, a Purple Flag nightlife designation, and a main street working through what it is for now that the cars go around it. Punchestown week is the one time the whole town solves the question temporarily.

06 / 10

Music, by day of the week.

Schedules drift. This is roughly right. The real answer is "ask in the first pub you find."

Tue

Hayden's - trad session from 9pm, set dancing after. 25+ years without a break.

Wed

33 South Main - live music in The Stores, check schedule

Thu

Kavanagh's - varies, check weekly

Fri

McCormack's - live music from 9:30pm

Lawlor's - ticketed acts in The Random Inn, schedule on website

Sat

Kavanagh's - live music most Saturdays

McCormack's - live, varies

Sun

Hayden's - occasional Sunday session, worth checking

07 / 10

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Naas Canal Harbour Loop The Naas spur of the Grand Canal was built in 1789. Follow it from the harbour out to where it rejoins the main canal - restored locks, lock-keeper cottages, towpath under mature trees. The town mostly ignores it. That is why it works as a walk.

4 km returndistance

1 hourtime

Grand Canal Way (Naas to Corbally Harbour) North along the canal from Naas Harbour toward Corbally. Flat towpath, no cars, a succession of locks to count. Good for a morning out. Arrange a return or bring a bike.

8 km one waydistance

2-2.5 hourstime

The Moat and Town Heritage Walk The North Moat, Saint David's Church, the old town walls - none of it is dramatically signposted but all of it is there. Pick up the town heritage trail leaflet from the library or find it online before you arrive. The Moat is the anchor. Start there.

2 km loopdistance

45 mintime

08 / 10

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Apr-May

Late April is Punchestown. Book accommodation months ahead and go. If racing is not for you, the whole week has an energy the town generates once a year.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Naas Racecourse runs flat meetings through the summer. The canal walk is at its best in June. The town is a functional county town in July - quiet tourism-wise, which suits a day visit.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

The National Hunt season opens in autumn and Punchestown and Naas Racecourse start their winter card. The canal in October is a good walk. Fewer people than summer.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

A county-town winter. The racing continues but the town is quiet. Hayden's Tuesday session runs regardless of month. If you are here for work or passing through, it functions. As a destination, wait for spring.

◐ Mind yourself

09 / 10

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Driving in expecting a heritage town centre

The bypass era took a toll. The main street has gaps and the historic fabric is present but not concentrated or curated. Go on foot with a heritage trail map, or the gaps will disappoint you.

Punchestown without a ticket if you want to see the racing

The festival sells out. Walk-up access exists but the enclosures fill early and the serious races happen in the afternoon. Book in January. The Bronze Age standing stone is in the middle of the course and you cannot see it from outside the fence.

The main street chain restaurants

Naas has the full suite of Irish-market chains on the main street. Neighbourhood, Bouchon, and Vie de Châteaux are all within ten minutes and are actually restaurants. Use them.

Assuming Sallins station is far away

It is three kilometres. The train to Dublin Heuston takes 35 minutes. If you are coming from Dublin for the day, the train is the answer - Punchestown week has shuttle buses from the station to the course.

Getting there.

By car

Dublin to Naas is 35 minutes on the N7/M7. Junction 10 of the M7 drops you into the town. Free parking in the town centre car parks. Punchestown is 4km south of town - follow signs on race days.

By bus

Dublin Coach and Bus Éireann run frequent services from Dublin city centre and Busáras. Journey time 45-55 minutes depending on traffic on the N7. Bus drops on the main street.

By train

Naas station closed in 1959. The nearest open station is Sallins & Naas, 3km north of the town centre, on the Dublin Heuston-Newbridge-Kildare line. Trains every 30 minutes at peak; 35 minutes to Heuston. Taxis and local buses connect to town. On Punchestown Festival days, shuttle buses run from Sallins station to the course.

By air

Dublin Airport is 55km by road - allow 50-70 minutes depending on traffic. The M50 connects directly to the N7.