Most people come to Kildangan for the horses. The village, a quiet spot of 317 people on the R417 between Monasterevin and Athy, grew up around Kildangan Stud – now the Irish headquarters of Godolphin, Sheikh Mohammed’s racing operation, and home to Darley’s Irish-based stallions. The estate runs a guided ‘Foal-to-Fame’ walking tour, and it’s the one thing here worth planning a day around: it takes you through the parkland and breeding yards, past the stallions and, in spring, the new foals. Tickets were around €35 at the time of writing – book ahead through tickets.horsecountry.ie, as places are limited and dates shift with the breeding season.
The castle that became the stud
The village owes its name to a vanished castle. During the Anglo-Norman settlement, Maurice Fitzgerald of Allen built a stronghold here as one link in a defensive line down the River Barrow, from Carlow to Lea Castle near Portarlington; the church beside it gave the place its Irish name, Cill Daingin, ‘the church of the fort’. Both stood within what are now the grounds of Kildangan Stud. The Fitzgeralds forfeited the castle in 1641, and after them the Aylmers and, from 1706, the O’Reillys held the land. In 1882 the old castle was dynamited and its stone reused to build the Victorian-Jacobean house, designed by William Hopkins, that still anchors the estate. The More O’Ferrall family built the demesne into a serious thoroughbred operation before selling to the Maktoum family in 1986.
The village church
Our Lady of Victories carries the rest of the story. A parliamentary return of 1731 recorded that Kildangan had no Mass house at all: the priest of Lackagh, it noted, ‘says Mass often at the back of an old castle there’. The present church was built in 1792 on land given and paid for by the O’Reilly family, enlarged in 1849, and given its tower and bell in 1881 by Fr Michael Comerford. A Richard O’Reilly born in the parish in 1746 went on to become Archbishop of Armagh. Mass is still said on Sundays at 11am.
Walks and the village
The River Barrow runs close by, and the flat towpath of the Barrow Way is within easy reach for gentle walking or cycling towards Athy or Monasterevin. In the village itself, the Crosskeys is the pub for a pint; there’s a Gala filling station with a postal point (the post office itself closed in 2004) and a chip shop for the basics. The GAA club, re-established in 2001, plays at More O’Ferrall Park and was named Kildare Club of the Year in 2010.
Getting there
Kildangan is about 60km from Dublin and easiest reached by car, off the R417. Local Link buses run three times a day to Athy, Kildare Town and Newbridge, and the nearest train station is at Monasterevin, around 6km away. If you’re making a day of the horses, pair the stud tour with the Irish National Stud at Johnstown – the only stud in Ireland open to the public day to day – and you’ll have seen the best of thoroughbred Kildare. Aim for a morning tour slot, and book it weeks ahead in spring.