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KILQUADE

CO. WICKLOW · IE

Kilquade
Cill Chomhaid, Co. Wicklow

The Ireland's Ancient East
STOP 07 / 07

Cill Chomhaid · Co. Wicklow

A scatter of houses between Kilpedder and Kilcoole with two reasons to stop: a famine-era 'Compensation Church' and the garden centre on the old National Garden Exhibition site.

Kilquade is small, and honest enough not to pretend otherwise. It sits in north Wicklow between Kilpedder and Kilcoole, about a kilometre east of Junction 12 on the N11, in the barony of Newcastle. A few hundred people, a church, a garden centre, and the green strip of coast running south behind it toward the Murrough. It is not a destination so much as a name you pass on the way to Greystones or the M11.

The name is older than anything you can see. It comes from Cill Chomhaid - the cell or church of a St Comghaid, an early monastic figure who left nothing behind but a place name. What stands today is St Patrick's Church of 1802, and it has a genuinely odd story. The earlier church was burned in the 1798 Rebellion, and the rebuilt one was part-funded by a £77 'Restoration Grant' from the British government. That makes it a 'Compensation Church', and according to the parish it is the only one of its kind left in the Dublin Diocese.

The other reason to slow down is the garden centre across the way. It was the National Garden Exhibition Centre for years, the place that put Kilquade on the road signs; the Arboretum group took it over in 2015. You can walk the show gardens for nothing and get a decent lunch in Rachel's Secret Garden café. There is no pub in the village itself - for that you go five minutes up the road to Newtownmountkennedy or down to Kilcoole. Kilquade is a stop, not a stay, and it is fine with that.

Population

~300

Founded

St Patrick's Church built 1802; St Comghaid's cell gives the place its name

Coords

53.1039 N, 6.0850 W

01 / 07

At a glance.

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

01 The church

St Patrick's, 1802 - the only 'Compensation Church' left in the Dublin Diocese.

Burned in the 1798 Rebellion and rebuilt with a £77 'Restoration Grant' from the British government, which makes it a rarity. A small roughcast three-bay church with a bellcote, restored for its bicentenary in 2002. Free to look at, on the road across from the garden centre.

Stories & lore → 02 The garden

Arboretum Kilquade - the old National Garden Exhibition Centre.

The one thing that actually pulls visitors off the N11 into Kilquade. A garden and lifestyle centre with show gardens, a shop and Rachel's Secret Garden café. Free to wander. The reason most people have heard the name at all.

Food & coffee →

02 / 07

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
Rachel's Secret Garden Café	Garden café at Arboretum Kilquade	€€	Inside the Arboretum garden centre on the Kilpedder road, named for Arboretum founder Rachel Doyle. Food cooked from scratch on site - Irish-sourced meat and eggs through Bord Bia, a children's menu, free WiFi and step-free access. The obvious lunch stop in Kilquade, and effectively the only one. Daytime hours, tied to the garden centre.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

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

St Patrick's, 1802 - £77 from the Crown

The Compensation Church

There has been Catholic worship around Kilquade since the 1600s; two chalices still in use are inscribed 1633 and 1759, and official records from 1701 name Fr Seneca Fitzwilliam as the priest tolerated under the Penal Laws. The church of that era was burned during the 1798 Rebellion. When it was rebuilt in 1802, part of the money came as a 'Restoration Grant' of £77 from the British government - compensation for the destruction - which is why the parish calls it a 'Compensation Church' and reckons it the only surviving example in the Dublin Diocese. The building itself is modest: a roughcast three-bay single-storey church on a T-plan, pointed windows with simple tracery, cast-iron galleries inside and a little bellcote on the gable. It was restored for its bicentenary in 2002 and rededicated by Cardinal Desmond Connell in 2004. The old iron bell, hung on M. Byrne's patented 1887 rotary mountings, rang here until that refit.

The garden centre that named the road signs

From exhibition to Arboretum

For a long stretch the only thing that drew anyone deliberately to Kilquade was the National Garden Exhibition Centre - a set of show gardens laid out by professional horticulturists, opposite the church. In 2015 it was taken over by Arboretum, the family garden business that Rachel Doyle started at her home in Co. Carlow in 1977 and grew into a multi-site operation. It still runs as Arboretum Kilquade: show gardens, a plant and lifestyle shop, a children's playground, and Rachel's Secret Garden café doing food cooked on site. Entry to wander is free, which is the right price for an hour out of the car on a grey Wicklow afternoon.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

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

St Patrick's Church and the garden centre There is no marked trail in Kilquade, but the two things worth seeing face each other across the road. Look in at the 1802 church - the bellcote and the cast-iron galleries are the detail - then walk the free show gardens at Arboretum opposite. An hour, café included, and you have seen the village.

Short strolldistance

30-60 minutestime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The right season for the garden centre - the show gardens and the planting are at their best, and the north Wicklow coast behind the village is greening up.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long evenings and the Greystones/Kilcoole coast five minutes away. Kilquade itself is quiet; treat it as a lunch-and-gardens stop on a bigger day out.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Soft light, fewer cars on the N11, the café still open. A calm time to look at the church and the gardens without a crowd.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days and not much open beyond the garden centre's daytime hours. Fine as a passing stop, not a day in itself.

◐ Mind yourself

06 / 07

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

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

A night out in Kilquade

There isn't one. No pub in the village; the nearest are the Mount Kennedy Inn in Newtownmountkennedy or the bars down in Kilcoole. Kilquade is a daytime stop.

Expecting a village centre

Kilquade is a scatter of houses, a church and a garden centre strung along the road, not a square with shops. Come for the church and the gardens, then move on to Greystones or Kilcoole for the rest.

Getting there.

By car

Off the N11/M11 at Junction 12 (Kilpedder); Kilquade is about 1 km east. Greystones is roughly 10 minutes north, Kilcoole 5 minutes south, Newtownmountkennedy 5 minutes back toward the motorway.

By bus

Bus Éireann and Local Link services on the N11 corridor serve Kilpedder and Newtownmountkennedy nearby; there is no frequent stop in Kilquade itself, so a car is the practical way in.

By train

No station in Kilquade. The nearest rail is the DART at Greystones (about 10 minutes by car) or Kilcoole station on the Dublin-Rosslare line just south.