At the entrance to the South Campus of Maynooth University, there is a destroyed castle known as Maynooth Castle, located in Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland. Built in the early 13th century, it served as the principal abode of the Kildare Fitzmaurice and Fitzgerald. In 1176, Strongbow gave Maurice Fitzgerald, Lord of Llanstephan, the land that is now Kildare. Around 1203, the original keep was built. Gerald Fitzmaurice, 1st Lord of Offaly, constructed the castle at the confluence of two streams, which became the residence of the Fitzmaurice and Fitzgerald families. Sir John Fitzgerald extended it in the fifteenth century after that. The ancestors of Gerald Fitzmaurice went on to become the Earls of Leinster and Kildare. Lords Deputy of Ireland. In March 1535, an English force under the command of William Skeffington assaulted the enormous castle, destroying most of the medieval construction with their powerful, contemporary siege guns. Following a ten-day siege, the castle collapsed, and the garrison was ruthlessly executed in front of the castle gate. Shortly after, Silken Thomas was taken prisoner and sent, together with his five uncles, to the Tower of London. On February 3, 1537, they were put to death at Tyburn for treason. Following the marriage of his daughter to George FitzGerald, 16th Earl of Kildare, Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, renovated the Castle between 1630 and 1635. However, a large portion of this structure was destroyed in the 1640s during the Eleven Years War. Only the Solar Tower and the gatehouse are still standing. The Fitzgeralds permanently departed Maynooth Castle and established their family seat first at Kilkea Castle and then at Carton House. In order to turn the castle into a Heritage Site, the Office of Public Works recommenced restoration work on it in February 2000. The partially collapsed structure is still open to visitors today, albeit entry is restricted [Information and Image Credit : Maynooth_Castle, Wikipedia] [Wikipedia-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maynooth_Castlen ] [Image : Maynooth Castle in 2016; Wikipedia-Image-Author : William Murphy] [Image Availed Under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license; (Please Relate to Individual Image URL for More Usage Property)] [License-Link : https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en ] [Wikipedia-Image-Source-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Maynooth_castle.jpg ] #Castles#History#Architecture
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Monuments and Architecture
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