Kildare

It survives only as a single tower next to Market Square, best viewed by strolling into the car park of the Silken Thomas pub. It was built by the Normans in the 12th century, and much bashed in the Gaelic resurgence of the 13th and 14th centuries. Little is known of its later history, but the surviving tower was probably a gatehouse converted into a fortified dwelling in the 15th century.

Church of Ireland (Anglican) cathedral dating to 1223, though largely re-built from 1875. St Brigid (451-525) is said to have founded a church on this site in 480 AD. Myths and legends associated with the pagan Celtic goddess Brigid have been transferred to her, with many more accumulating in later centuries (see the example below), and her supposed date of death 1 Feb is the Celtic festival of Imbolc. The Round Tower a few steps northwest is almost 33 m tall: in the 1780s its conical cap was replaced by castellations. Its Romanesque doorway is 12th century but the tower may be 200 years older, and you can climb it for a small fee. "St Brigid's Kitchen" is the name given to a 14th-century burial vault in the grounds, and there's the remnants of a High Cross. Another structure is said to be an ancient "fire temple": St Brigid is altogether unlikely to have been Zoroastrian, but in the 6th century, woe betide anyone who let the community's main fire go out.

Nothing remains of the Carmelite friary of 1290. Its white-robed friars survived Dissolution and the Penal Laws and built a church on the same site in the 1750s. That was replaced by the present Puginesque-Gothic church in 1884, still in use.

This farm was bought in 1900 by Colonel William Hall Walker, of Johnny Walker whisky, and he built up the stud business. Walker also developed the Japanese gardens here, and in 1916 he donated his entire bloodstock to the government to form a National Stud. After independence the British component was at Newmarket, England, but in 1943 the Irish equivalent was set up here. Half a dozen prize stallions stand ever-ready to service any beast you bring along. In 1999 St Fiacre's Gardens were added, and the grounds also include the Black Abbey, see above.

This is a "clooty well": you dip a piece of clothing in the blessed waters, rub the afflicted part, then pin the clothing to the rag tree. The affliction will fade along with the sacrificial rag.

Cuirreach means "place of the running horse" and it's been used for racing for centuries. It's a two mile track for thoroughbred flat-racing April-Oct, with the five classic fixtures being Irish 1000 and 2000 Guineas, and the Irish Derby, Oaks and St Leger. The place was refurbished in 2017. Its railway connection has gone, but shuttle buses run from Kildare station on race days.