Kilkea Castle was erected in 1180 by Hugh de Lacy, the Earl of Ulster and the Chief Governor of Ireland, for Sir Walter de Riddlesford built a motte and bailey castle on the site in 1180. A grand daughter of his married Maurice Fitzgerald, and the Manor of Kilkea came into the possession of the Fitzgeralds where it remained for over 700 years. The land where the castle was built was once in the Barony of Richard de Clare, known commonly as Strongbow, who played a key role in the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland.
The castle is also associated with Gerald, the 11th Earl of Kildare known as the “Wizard Earl”, who became the male representative of the Geraldines when only twelve years of age after his half brother “Silken Thomas” the 10th earl, was executed at Tyburn in 1537. You can still see an early attempt to ward off evil, in the form of an Evil Eye Stone, a roughly carved depiction of grotesque half-human figures set high in the wall of what was once the guard room.
The Earl died in 1585 and is supposed to return to the castle every seventh year mounted on a silver-shod white charger.[1] In 1634 the castle was leased to the Jesuit Order by the widow of the 14th Earl of Kildare and they remained there until 1646.
