Overview
Naas is the largest town in County Kildare — 26,180 people at the last count — and its name records what it used to be. Nás na Ríogh means the place of assembly of the kings, and in Irish myth the low mound in the town, Dún Nás, is the burial place of Nás, wife of Lugh of the Tuatha Dé Danann. The town grew up around that hill. It sits 30km southwest of Dublin on the old road to the southwest, close enough that most people who live here commute to the capital. What actually brings a visitor is narrower than the tourist-board version: a good Friday market, a canal harbour, and horse racing on the edge of town.
History
Long before the Normans, Naas was a royal site — St Patrick is said to have passed through in AD 448 and baptised the children of King Dúnlaing at a well at Oldtown. Henry IV granted the town its first charter in 1409, and in 1414 Henry V gave the burgesses the right to collect tolls to pay for walls; the defences went up around 1415 against raids by the O’Byrnes and O’Tooles of the Wicklow hills. Elizabeth I issued a fresh charter in 1568. The Irish parliament itself sat here on occasion — in 1441, for one.
Not all of it was ceremony. In 1577 Rory O’More burned the town in revenge for kin killed by the English. On 24 May 1798 about a thousand United Irishmen attacked Naas in one of the first engagements of the rebellion and were beaten off in the streets. The past is still legible in the ruins of Grey Abbey, a 13th-century Franciscan house, and in the great unfinished shell of Jigginstown Castle on the edge of town.
What to see and do
Markets and the Moat Theatre
The Moat Theatre takes its name from the mound beside it — a motte thought to be over 2,000 years old. It runs drama, comedy and live music through the year. On Friday mornings, 9am to noon, the Naas Country Market fills the space with growers and bakers; on Saturdays the Farmers’ Market sets up at the Potato Market, in the shadow of St David’s Castle. That castle is a 13th-century Norman foundation — the present fortified house is 18th-century — and was under renovation at the time of writing.
For a wet afternoon with children, KBowl on the edge of town has bowling, arcades and the Wacky World soft-play, while the Waterways complex at nearby Sallins runs the Imagination Station craft school. If you only do one thing in Naas on a Friday, do the country market, then walk down to the harbour.
Heritage and canal walks
The Grand Canal reaches Naas by a short branch off the main line, ending at Naas Harbour — a restored basin of stone warehouses, a pub and towpaths good for a slow morning walk. The main canal carries on west; Naas is a spur, not the end of the line. From Sallins you can take a barge trip along the canal proper, or hire a bike. Further out, the Old Railway Walk follows the disused Naas–Sallins line through the Lakelands, a level, gravelled route with birdlife and interpretive panels.
The Perpetual Motion sculpture — a stainless-steel sphere everyone calls the Naas Ball — stands at the N7/N9 junction and tells you you have arrived. Kildare County Museum, off the Sallins Road, is a worthwhile detour for the town’s racing and market-town history. And north of the town, near Prosperous, is one of the largest hedge mazes in Ireland — the biggest in Leinster — with 1.5km of paths and a viewing tower in the middle.
Racing and motorsport
Kildare is horse country, and Naas Racecourse — which marked 100 years of racing in 2024 — is a short walk from the main street, staging both flat and jump meetings through the year. General admission runs around €15, usually with a €5 betting voucher thrown in, and parking is free on race days; a dedicated Dublin Coach service runs from the airport via the Red Cow Luas stop when there is racing on. Southwest of town, Punchestown hosts the Irish National Hunt Festival each April. Motor-racing fans have Mondello Park, Ireland’s only permanent international circuit, now past its fiftieth year.
Shopping and dining
South Main Street and the lanes off it mix high-street names with a few independents; Newhall Retail Park, 3km west, handles the bigger shops. For food, O’Connor’s and Tommy Fletcher’s are the pubs for a pint and a session, 33 South Main is a gastropub with live music and a Wednesday quiz, Bouchon does modern European, and Regatto’s, Rustic and Amaya Fusion cover Italian, modern European and Asian. The town picked up a Purple Flag in 2019 for its evening and night-time offering, if you are staying out late.
Getting there
Naas is easy to reach from Dublin and the midlands.
- By road: The N7/R448 corridor connects Naas to Dublin city centre in roughly 30 minutes in normal traffic. The M7 motorway runs parallel to the town, with Junction 9a giving direct access to Clane and the Sallins bypass.
- By rail: The nearest station is Sallins & Naas, on the Dublin–Cork intercity line. Hourly services connect to Dublin Heuston, with onward links to Kildare, Carlow and Waterford.
- By bus: Go-Ahead Ireland’s route 126 runs every 30 minutes from Dublin Docklands, terminating in Newbridge but stopping frequently in Naas. JJ Kavanagh services link the town to Dublin Airport and surrounding villages.
- Parking: Pay-and-display in town is run by Apcoa, with the first hour free in some car parks and a multi-storey at Naas Town Centre. Racecourse parking is free on race days.
The Grand Canal towpath is level but unpaved in sections; the Old Railway Walk has a compacted gravel surface suitable for buggies and wheelchairs.
When to visit
Racing dominates the spring and summer calendar, from Punchestown’s April festival through Naas’s flat meetings. The three-day Easter Racing Festival is worth timing for if you like jump racing, and the Naas Wild Food Festival is worth catching too — listings put it in May in some years and September in others, so check the date before you travel. Summer weekends are busiest for the Friday market. May and September give you mild weather for the canal walks without the crowds.
Time a visit for a Friday: the country market in the morning, then the towpath down to the harbour, and racing at Naas or Punchestown if the calendar lines up.