Archaeological evidence for the presence of people in Kildare in Neolithic times has been found. Those include the Broadleas stone circle, various standing stones, ritual sites, hill forts (including the royal site of Dún Ailinne), crannógs and toghers.

By 450 A.D. Christianity was established and churches were built. In the fifth century St. Brigid founded a monastery on the western edge of the Curragh Plain, near a stand of oak trees, on land donated by the King of Leinster. The settlement on the ancient Ridge of Clay (Druim Criaig) flourished and gave a new name, Cill Dara, ‘Church of the Oak,’ to the area.

Co. Kildare’s network of established monastic settlements were attacked continually by the Vikings. The town of Leixlip owed its origins to the Danish invaders and became the most westerly part of the Viking Kingdom of Dublin. Its name is derived from the old Norse for ‘Salmon…