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MAYNOOTH |
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| There really isn't all that much to detain you in MAYNOOTH - due
west of Dublin on the M4 - (pronounced Ma-nooth , with the stress on the
second syllable), pretty though it is. A handful of worthwhile
attractions lie near to Maynooth including, four miles west, the
intriguing Larchill Arcadian Gardens - a monument to the eccentricities
of the eighteenth-century landowners who first developed them.
Castletown House , outside Celbridge, is perhaps Ireland's most splendid
Palladian mansion and combines a perfect eighteenth-century Classicism
with follies to rival the idiosyncracies of Larchill. Around four miles
west from Castletown House, the village of Straffan is home to a steam
museum and a butterfly farm. Maynooth itself is renowned chiefly for its
seminary, St Patrick's College , which, in addition to training priests,
now houses two universities. Fans of Victoriana will be especially
interested in the square here, which is by Pugin in Gothic Revival style.
The ruins beside the entrance to the college are those of the thirteenth-century
Maynooth Castle , one of the two main strongholds of the Anglo-Norman
Fitzgerald family who ruled Kildare and, effectively, most of Ireland
from the thirteenth century until the coming of the Tudor monarchs (their
other castle is at Kilkea, in the south ). Maynooth's formal town
planning is made sense of by Carton House, a Georgian gem by Richard
Castle which lies at the other end of the main street. |
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