Kildare Round Tower and Cathedral

Brigid founded a monastery at Kildare around 480, and unusually it was a double house of both men and women under an abbess, which made Kildare one of the most powerful ecclesiastical centres in early Ireland. Nothing of that foundation survives above ground. What stands is a round tower of about thirty-three metres, twelfth-century in its lower courses with a later battlemented top replacing the original conical cap, and Saint Brigid's Cathedral, a thirteenth-century building heavily restored in the 1870s. The tower is one of only two in Ireland that visitors can climb; the interior is a series of steep wooden ladders between floors, not a stair, and the reward is a view over the Curragh and the town. Beside the cathedral is a reconstructed fire temple, marking where a perpetual flame is said to have been kept by nuns until the Reformation.

What you actually see

• The round tower - about thirty-three metres, and climbable inside.
• The fire temple - the marked site of the perpetual flame.
• The cathedral - thirteenth-century fabric, heavily restored in the 1870s.
• The Brigid foundation - the site of the double monastery from around 480.

When to go

May to September; the tower climb is seasonal and closes for winter and in wet weather. Brigid's day, the first of February, brings events in the town.

Honest expectations

The tower is climbed by steep wooden ladders, not stairs - it is unsuitable for anyone uneasy with heights or confined spaces, and closes in rain. Nothing of the original monastery survives. Cathedral opening is limited outside summer.

Nearby

The Irish National Stud and Japanese Gardens are outside the town; the Curragh is east.