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Kilkea Castle, as you see it here, was built in 1426 on an earlier Norman site which had been built by Sir Walter de Riddlesford in 1181. His granddaughter married Maurice Fitzgerald and so the Manor of Kilkea came into the possession of the powerful Fitzgeralds and remained with them for 700 years until the 19th Earl of Kildare decided to make Carlton House in Leixlip the family seat in the 18th century. The Castle was sold by the Fitzgeralds in the early 1960's and was then run successfully as a hotel for decades. It is now under a major renovation and runs an excellent golf club. It is the oldest inhabited castle in Ireland.  The rather x-rated carving you see in the extras is at one entrance to the castle and is accredited to the 11th Earl who pursued an interest in alchemy and black magic. Also in extras is the family graveyard.