Today I discovered Oldtown for the first time in almost 30 years of living here - I had a few minutes to myself in Naas so went to my favourite haunt along the canal. I found a wee path and went exploring and found myself standing at a gate looking into the gardens of Oldtown House. Such beauty so close to the centre of the town!
The wee path to the gates
Oldtown gardens from the gates
I regret the only camera I had with me was a smart phone with a scratched lens, so my pictures are rather fuzzy. So I did a bit of research and found a comprehensive video:
"In 1696 Thomas Burgh acquired a property outside Naas called Oldtown. The site lay near a holy well where St Patrick reputedly baptised Oillill and Illann, the sons of King Dunlang of Leinster. In 1709, he designed and oversaw the construction of a new house at Oldtown, one of Ireland's first Palladian winged houses. The building comprised of a two storey central block flanked by two storey wings. The centre block was adorned with pairs of Ionic pilasters, rising to just beneath the windows of the first floor. The wings were likewise adorned with Ionic pilasters, all of which carried substantial entablatures. Thomas's masterpiece was to remain the pride of his descendants until the centre block was destroyed by fire in the 1950s and the family moved into one of the wings."
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