Athy Attractions

Five mi/eight km east of the Motte of Ardskull near Athy lies Ballitore, once a flourishing Quaker settlement with a celebrated school. The Quaker Meeting House now houses a bookshop and a small museum. Another attraction is the Crookstown Historical and Heritage Center, set up in a mill dating from the mid-19th C. which has been restored and has a mill-wheel that still operates. Numerous exhibits document corn-grinding and bread-making in past centuries.

Athy's old Court and Market House, a fine Georgian building, is now the fire station.

Downstream from White's Castle in Athy stands the Dominican church (by John Thompson, 1963-65), on a pentagonal plan, with an ingenious spherically vaulted roof structure. It contains a number of notable works of art, including fine stained glass and Stations of the Cross by George Campbell.

4.5mi/7km northeast of Athy, on the N78, is the Motte of Ardskull, a 30ft/9m high circular earthwork of the 12th C.

White's Castle in Athy, built by the Earl of Kildare in the 16th C. to protect the Barrow, is a massive rectangular structure with turrets at the corners. The bridge has the unusual name of Crom-a-boo, from the war-cry of the Desmonds - an Earl of Desmond was English Governor about 1420.

Woodstock Castle (13th C.) is 800m/0.5mi north of Athy on the L18. It was built to defend the river crossing and suffered severe damage in 1649.