Carton House

Carton House was an estate and great house that was the ancestral seat of the Earls of Kildare and Dukes of Leinster. Located 23 km west of Dublin, in Maynooth, County Kildare, the Carton demesne is 1,100 acres (4.5 km²). For two hundred years Carton House estate was the finest example in Ireland of a Georgian-created parkland landscape. In the 2000s much of the estate was redeveloped into two golf courses and the house into a hotel complex.

During a history spanning more than eight centuries, Carton Demesne has seen many changes. The estate first came into the ownership of the FitzGerald family shortly after Maurice FitzGerald played an active role in the capture of Dublin by the Normans in 1170 and was rewarded by being appointed Lord of Maynooth, an area covering townlands which include Carton.

His son became Baron Offaly in 1205 and his descendant John FitzGerald, became Earl of Kildare in 1315. Under the eighth earl, the FitzGerald family reached pre-eminence as the virtual rulers of Ireland between 1477 and 1513.

However, the eighth earl's grandson, the eloquently titled Silken Thomas was executed in 1537, with his five uncles, for leading an uprising against the English. Although the FitzGeralds subsequently regained their land and titles, they did not regain their position at the English Court until the 18th century when Robert, the 19th Earl of Kildare, became a noted statesman.

The first record of a house at Carton was in the 17th century when William Talbot, Recorder of Dublin, was given a lease of the lands by the 14th Earl of Kildare and is thought to have built a house. The house and lands were forfeited to the crown in 1691 and in 1703 sold to Major General Richard Ingoldsby, Master General of the Ordnance.

In 1739, the lease was sold back to the 19th Earl of Kildare, who employed Richard Cassels to build the existing house. This was the same year the FitzGerald family bought Frescati House. Castle (originally Cassels) was also responsible for some other grand Irish houses, including Summerhill House, Westport House, Powerscourt House and in 1745, Leinster House, which he also built for the FitzGeralds.

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