Historic town

The National Monuments Service's description

According to Bradley et al. (1986, Vol. 2, 126-36), evidence for pre-Norman settlement consists of the placename Cill Droiched ('the church of the bridge'), traditional associations with St Mochua, and traces of a possible early ecclesiastical enclosure. The village was known as Kildrought until the 18th c. Celbridge formed part of the 'cantred of Offelan nearest Dublin' granted by Strongbow to Adam De Hereford before 1176. Adam granted Celbridge ('Kildroch') to his brother John, who was in turn succeeded by his son Thomas, on whose death, before 1224, Celbridge passed to his son-in-law Milo de Rochford. The Rochfords held Celbridge until the mid-14th c. Although the earliest evidence for the existence of a borough occurs in 1401, there was clearly a significant settlement there by 1314 when Henry le Waleys was charged with breaking the 'doors of houses in the town of Kildroght' and taking geese, hens, bread, and beer (Wood et al. 1956, 318). Around 1387-9, John Rout and Richard Arblaster, chaplains, were given royal licence to enfeoff Maurice FitzThomas, earl of Kildare, with the manor of Kildroght. The manor was forfeited after the rebellion of Silken Thomas, and in 1536, it was granted to John Alen, Master of the Rolls. By 1554, it had been restored to the Kildares when the earl requested the Lord Deputy to confirm the manor of Castletown (i.e. the town of the castle of Celbridge) to Gerald Sutton, who was later to forfeit it because of his part in the Baltinglass rebellion of 1580. In 1587, the manor of Castletown-Kildroght was granted to John Dongan, and the Dongan's held it for most of the 17th c. In 1654, the Civil Survey recorded 'one stone house .. intended for a malt house, a bridge over the Liffey and three mills in Celbridge, while the 1659 census gave the population of Kildroght as 63 and Celbridge as 34. In 1674, Celbridge was granted a weekly market and two yearly fairs. A burgage plot pattern is evident on 19th century maps, but subsequent building has severely eroded it. There are references to two castles (KD011-023---- and KD011-012003-), a bridge (KD011-012007-) and several mills (KD011-012008-), and evidence of a possible early ecclesiastical enclosure (KD011-012004-), and a medieval church (KD011-012005-) and graveyard (KD011-012006-) survives.

Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy

Date of upload: 10 June 2011