WHERE REAL MEMORIES ARE MADE
WHERE REAL MEMORIES ARE MADE
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Rated 4.5 – Traveler’s Choice Award Best of the Best 2024
What makes the Silken Thomas Accommodation so great? Comfort & Convenience. We start with well equipped rooms & comfy beds, so comfortable that you might never want to leave, & that’s fine by us. But if you decide to venture out, what you will first notice is that you are in prime location. With everything you could ever want on your break away, only a stone’s throw away.
When you stay overnight you will receive a complementary 10% Discount off purchases in the adjacent Kildare Village Shopping Outlet
Book our “Shop & Stay” package to include a hearty Irish Breakfast along with a €20 Food Voucher per guest, redeemable onsite at the Silken Thomas
Accommodation, food or late night entertainment, whatever you desire, you can find it here. The Silken Thomas experience is quite like no other, an unrivalled atmosphere. From our breakfast menu to our a la carte restaurant menu, everything you could ever want, and more, can be found in the Silken Thomas. We love our food and drink, and when it all comes together, its something to be excited about.
The Silken Thomas is a family operated business, which was established 50 years ago. Located in the heart of Kildare Town, the renowned Silken Thomas has been a cornerstone of the local community for decades. The only way to truly understand the unique endearing qualities of the Silken Thomas, is to experience it for yourself.
The prosperity and location of the town made it an attractive place for plunderers and power-hungry magnates and it became an important site during the early years of the Norman invasion of Ireland. Once the Normans arrived in the frontier town of Kildare, it being on the edge of their territory, they quickly set about building defences and this developed into
the Castle of Kildare. The first fortification was probably built by Strongbow, Richard de Clare,
Earl of Pembroke (died 1176 A.D.), who established his power-base at Kildare in 1172 and who is famously remembered in Kildare in the name CLARE-GATE STREET (there is another suggestion, that the term refers to the Irish word Cléirigh — Sráid na Cléirigh, or road of the clerics). The stone Castle is credited to his successor, William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke.
The bungalow next door remains occupied, now called The Silken Rooms but the castle was last occupied in 1996 (at least the ground floor of it). Today the last remaining tower is referred to as ‘The Castle’ and is owned by Joe and Marie Flanagan, proprietors of the Silken Thomas and Lord Edward Guest House.
One of the most colourful characters associated with the Fitzgerald dynasty was Thomas Fitzgerald 10th Earl of Kildare. He was the son of Garrett Óg FitzGerald, Lord Deputy of Ireland. Thomas heard his father had been put to death in London and led an unsuccessful rebellion against the King. He and his five uncles were executed 1537. He is remembered as ‘Silken Thomas’, because of the silken plumes worn by his followers.
His half-brother, Gerald, was smuggled to safety on the continent but was eventually restored to his lands and titles as. 11th Earl of Kildare, the ‘Wizard Earl’, because of his interest in alchemy.
There is a superb view of the sole remaining Tower from Kildare Castle, at the entrance to the Silken Thomas car park.
Lord Edward FitzGerald, the military leader of the United Irishmen who lived for a time with his beautiful French wife, Lady Pamela, at Kildare Town, there is a bronze bust of the famed United Irishman on the Market square.
The small, red-bricked building on the south side of Dublin Street was the old post office. It closed in March/April 2007 but has been renovated as a youth space known as ‘The Hive’ and ‘In Sync’ Kildare Town Youth Project.
In 1798 the post office was listed in Market Square, close to the site of the modern Leinster Arms public house, but by 1838 it was located on Claregate Street, one door up from the Police Station on the corner of Claregate Street and Bangup Lane. By 1872 the Telegraph Office had moved to Dublin Street South, possibly around 1853 when the Police Barracks was built. Eircom still maintain a function and presence in the outer buildings and yard.
The impressive two-storey building next door testifies to the importance of the position in those days; it was the Postmaster’s House. Everything in those days revolved around communication and transport and the post office was the local hub. In a world without radio, phones or internet the mail coaches transported mail and people throughout the country. Indeed the signal for the beginning of the 1798 Rebellion was the stoppage of the mail coaches which would alert other rebels along the route that the rising had taken place and would also take control of the communications network in the countryside. It had been converted to apartments for a time but now provides guest accommodation for the Silken Thomas.
This beautiful ivy covered two storey house is situated as you cross the street from the Market Square northwards towards the laneway to the site of the Norman Castle. Today it is an end of terrace house but was most likely originally detached.
It was built in the Georgian style, sometime before the first Ordnance Survey map of 1837, on the site of an earlier house. Rocque’s 1757 Map shows a dwelling house, garden, stable etc. in possession of Francis Browne, while Sherrard’s 1798 Map shows the site was leased by Patrick White from Richard Hethrington. At that stage it contained a dwelling house, back house and yard; the stable mentioned earlier was probably leased to Lord Edward FitzGerald.
Around the time of Griffith’s Valuation of 1853 the property was in the hands of the Cleary family, business people who owned The Leinster Arms Hotel. It was later leased in September 1922 from the Duke of Leinster by the Burke family who famously set up the Tote system in Ireland. It was offered for sale in 1952 and again in May 1963, eventually being privately sold some days later. In modern times it was home to the Conlan Family who started the Chilling Company in the 1940’s, until recently acquired by the Flanagan family as guest accommodation for the Silken Thomas.
