School: Kilkea, Mageney (roll number 9123)
- Location:
- Kilkea Lodge Farm, Co. Kildare
- Teacher: Cáit Ní Chába
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0781, Page 299
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- XML School: Kilkea, Mageney
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- XML “The Moat of Ardscull”
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- (continued from previous page)The public road from Athy to Fonststown & Skerries runs about two - thirds of its base. It lay in the district of Omurethi, belonging to the O'Toole sept; and though it must have been a stronghold of great importance, yet strange to say, the name is not mentioned in "The Annals of the Four Masters," nor does it appear in any of the old Irish histories until after the coming of the Normans in the latter end of the twelfth century.
The Moat is on the Duke of Leinster's property. It probably came into possession of the Fitzgeralds in the 13th century, on the marriage of Thomas Fitzgerald 6th Baron of Offaly (father of the first Earl of Kildare) with Rohesia daughter of Richard de St Michael, Baron of Rheban, who was heiress of the Manors of Woodstock and Athy.
The Moat of Ardscull is still believed by the old people to be the abode of the little gentry, or good people, as they propitiatingly call the fairies. One story in connection with it was this :-
Long ago there dwelt in the neighbourhood a man named Murtagh Byrne who was deformed by a humped back. When passing the Moat one evening he heard a bagpipe music and singing going on at the summit. Wondering what party had assembled there, he climbed the steep sides, and peered over the ridge of the upper rampart,(continues on next page)
