Heritage, read from listings and their history
Best heritage homes in Co. Kildare
Kildare is often seen through the windows of a passing train or from the M7, a county of stud rails, racecourses and commuter towns. Look a little closer and older houses come into focus: Victorian town houses built for parish clergy, Georgian rectories set back behind long avenues, estate cottages tied to great landholdings, and single-storey farmhouses that have weathered centuries of change. This guide gathers homes from across the county and a few just beyond its borders in neighbouring Laois and Wicklow, where the same landscape of pasture, bog and low hills carries on. The selection is deliberately broad. A classical country house with a courtyard of loose boxes sits alongside a modest cut-stone cottage and a mid-century bungalow that still keeps its stained glass. What links them is individuality: each has a story, a setting or a surviving character that sets it apart from newer housing. Where a listing makes historical claims, such as a date of construction, a former use or a named occupant, we attribute these to the listing rather than presenting them as independently verified. Where we offer broader context about a building type, we say so. Our aim is to describe what living in each of these homes might feel like, not to replace a buyer's own enquiries.
- First published
- To live in
- 10
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Ready to move into
Heritage homes for living in
These homes appear, from their listings and photographs, to be in current use or ready for occupation, though this is an impression from listing evidence rather than a structural survey or guarantee. They range from grand Georgian and Victorian houses to estate and farm cottages and a mid-twentieth-century bungalow. Some have been sensitively updated, others extended boldly, and a few still await a refresh. In each case we have tried to capture what makes the building distinctive and what daily life there might offer.
A Victorian parochial house with its bay window turned to the town
On Drogheda Street in the centre of Monasterevin, this detached two-storey house is described by the listing as belonging to a mid-to-late Victorian phase of development along the street. Its defining gesture is the full-height canted bay on the south-west side of the front, set against render banded with red brick, a combination that gives the house real presence without grandeur for its own sake. As a type, the parochial house was the priest's residence beside or near the parish church, built to be respectable, solid and welcoming to callers. That broad tradition fits what the photographs show here: a porch and hall leading to well-proportioned reception rooms, inner glass screens, period staircases and marble chimneypieces, with window shutters surviving in the main rooms. Later changes, including a modest kitchen, a shower room and stoves, have been added without stripping out that joinery. The listing notes extensive gardens and a number of outbuildings on a large town-centre site, which is unusual this close to shops, schools and the railway station. For a buyer, the appeal is a substantial period house that seems ready to be lived in and gradually refreshed, with the bay-windowed rooms upstairs and down offering generous, light-filled spaces. The listing describes the windows as mainly PVC double glazing, so anyone hoping to reinstate timber sashes would be starting from that position.
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A Georgian rectory on the Kildare–Wicklow border, quietly renewed
Set in the townland of Glebe near Timolin, The Old Rectory is a double-fronted Georgian house approached by a sweeping avenue between hedging and post-and-rail fencing. The listing describes it as two storeys over basement to the front and three storeys at the back, a common arrangement where a house is built into a slope. The front has the calm symmetry associated with the period: a central doorcase with fanlight, balanced multi-pane windows and a hipped roof that the listing says was replaced in 2025. As general context, rectories and glebe houses were built across Ireland in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to house the clergy of the established church, and many were designed to sit comfortably among the farmland that surrounded them. Inside, drawing and dining rooms flank a split-level hall, each with a marble fireplace, while a lower level opens to a gated rear courtyard with stables and outbuildings. According to the listing, the house has been sympathetically upgraded over the last decade or so with new windows, insulation and heating. The south-facing kitchen with its AGA and the adjoining family room suggest that daily life has drifted to the sunnier side of the house, leaving the formal rooms for occasions. Formal lawns, a walled-in sense of privacy, a vegetable garden with fruit cage and a self-contained mews complete a setting that feels settled and lived in.
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Mount Prospect: a Georgian house at the heart of thoroughbred country
Near Rathangan, Mount Prospect pairs a classical country house with the working fabric of a stud farm, and it is that combination that gives it character. The listing calls it a distinguished Georgian country residence, and the photographs show a rendered, symmetrical front with a fanlit doorcase, sash windows and stone steps, while inside marble chimneypieces and decorative cornicing remain in the principal rooms. Kildare's long association with horse breeding is well known, and this property sits within that landscape, with the Curragh, the Irish National Stud and established studs in the wider area. Behind and around the house, the listing describes a traditional courtyard of loose boxes, foaling accommodation and stone outbuildings, as well as paddocks and a detached lodge. The house itself has been adapted for modern family life: a large open-plan kitchen, underfloor heating on the ground floor according to the listing, and a substantial glazed conservatory that opens towards the gardens. That rear addition changes how the house reads from behind, but the front and the main reception rooms keep their period dignity. For someone wanting to live with horses, or simply in a house where the yard and gardens are as much a part of the place as the rooms, Mount Prospect offers a setting with real depth and a sense of continuity with the county's rural traditions.
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An estate cottage near Maynooth with a courtyard of cut stone
At Graiguesallagh, in the quiet countryside between Maynooth and Clane, this stone cottage carries a story that the listing tells with some pride: it dates, it says, to the early 1800s and was originally home to the Duke of Leinster's land agent, and it has remained in the same family for more than five generations. Those particulars come from the listing rather than independent verification. As broader context, the Dukes of Leinster were among the most significant landowners in north Kildare, with their seat at Carton near Maynooth, and estates of that scale relied on agents to manage tenancies and lands. The house looks the part of a well-built estate dwelling: stone walling, a gabled porch and decorative bargeboards give the front a crisp, slightly picturesque character. Inside, the rooms have been modernised, but cast-iron fireplaces survive in the living room and a front bedroom. The listing says the cottage was extended and upgraded around twenty years ago, and the result is a comfortable home rather than a museum piece. The real treasure may be to the rear, where a courtyard of cut-stone outbuildings with timber doors forms a coherent group with the house. The listing suggests potential uses for these, subject to consents. With a paddock, mature hedging and Donadea Forest Park nearby, it is a home for those who want history and space within reach of Dublin.
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Steepholm: stained glass and tiled hearths behind a private Kildare garden
Not every heritage home is Georgian. Steepholm, on the Monasterevin Road within walking distance of Kildare Town, appears from its form and fittings to be a mid-twentieth-century detached house, though the listing does not give a construction date. It belongs to a generation of Irish homes that are only now being recognised for their own character, and it keeps a good deal of it. The listing highlights distinctive stained glass on the entrance doors, original feature fireplaces and ceiling plasterwork, and the photographs show leaded coloured glass framing the inner doorway, coving and picture rails, and tiled fireplace surrounds in the reception rooms. These are the details that tend to disappear in a hurried renovation, which makes their survival here notable. The house stands on a mature site of just under half an acre, with lawns, shrubs and trees giving a sense of seclusion unusual so close to a town centre, and outbuildings to the rear. A bathroom has recently been refurbished as a wet room, and the rest of the house reads as sound but ready for updating. The listing frames it as an opportunity to redesign into a modern family home; the most rewarding approach may be one that keeps the glass, fireplaces and plasterwork at the heart of any changes, letting the house remain recognisably itself.
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A twin-chimneyed cottage above the Bog of Allen
Just across the border in Co. Laois, near Ballintubbert, this single-storey cottage sits on an elevated site that, according to the listing, looks out towards the Dublin Mountains and the Bog of Allen. The listing dates it to the 1930s or 1940s, a period when many modest rural homes were built in Ireland with simple forms, rendered walls and a chimney at each end, and that is exactly the profile it presents. What makes it special is how much of its interior character remains. The listing describes tall tongue-and-groove timber ceilings throughout, original tongue-and-groove doors, some with their old furniture, and a mantelpiece still in its original paint. The photographs bear this out, along with small cast-iron fireplaces and a hearth recess now holding a dark green Rayburn, which the listing says provides the central heating. The hall floor is described as reclaimed French tiles over a century old, a later addition but one in keeping with the house. Modern elements, including a fitted kitchen, double-glazed teak windows and an updated bathroom, sit comfortably alongside the older timberwork. Outside, railings and a wicket gate frame a planted front garden, and much of the site is laid to grazing. It is a compact, characterful home for someone who values quiet, views and the texture of a well-kept country cottage.
Worth checking: The listing states that planning permission granted in 2016 for a two-storey extension has expired, so any future extension would need a fresh application. The listing also records a BER of G.
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An old farmhouse at Narraghmore, reimagined among orchard and hedgerow
South of Kilcullen, down a private laneway at Hillfarm, The Old Farmhouse is described by the listing as a 250-year-old traditional cottage, now extended and redesigned for contemporary life. From the front, its long single-storey profile and simple openings still read as a vernacular farmhouse, softened by Boston ivy that changes colour through the year. The original cottage now holds the bedrooms, with vaulted ceilings, rooflights and wooden shutters; the listing notes that the principal en-suite occupies what was once the cottage's entrance porch, a small detail that hints at how the old plan has been reworked. A newer extension holds the living, dining and kitchen spaces, matched to the scale and pitched roofs of the original so the whole remains coherent. Inside, much of the historic fabric is hidden behind modern finishes, and this is a house to choose for its atmosphere and setting rather than for untouched interiors. The listing places energy at the centre of the renovation, with solar panels, a battery and a B2 rating. The grounds are the other great draw: an old orchard of apples, cherries and hazelnuts, a hidden vegetable garden, a seasonal stream and a cluster of timber garden buildings used as studio, workshop and office. Alongside stands a second, older cottage which the listing describes as having cut stone, concrete and mud walls, with galvanised sheeting over its original thatched roof.
Worth checking: The second cottage on the site is described by the listing as needing complete or substantial renovation. Grant eligibility claims for that building are made by the listing and agent, and any redevelopment would be subject to planning permission.
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Kellyville: stone, slate and timber under a weeping willow
Also near Ballintubbert in Co. Laois, Kellyville is presented by the listing as a late Victorian country house that has undergone complete refurbishment and a substantial extension. The photographs show a long, low house with a part-stone façade, white-rendered sections, traditional gables and a slate roof, giving it the look of a rural farmhouse that has grown over time. A great weeping willow stands before it, and the house is approached through a walled and gated entrance with twin pillars onto a broad gravelled forecourt. Inside, the character is warm and timber-rich: natural wood floors, panelled and vaulted ceilings in the upstairs rooms, ledged-and-braced doors and deep-set windows. Two separate staircases, which the listing sees as in keeping with the house's period character, lend the plan a pleasing irregularity, and the bedrooms are arranged around two landings. How much of this joinery is original and how much is a sympathetic modern interpretation is not clear from the evidence, so it is best enjoyed as period-style craftsmanship in an older shell. Downstairs, a large country kitchen, a light-filled dining room and a living room with a solid-fuel stove open towards mature lawns, an orchard of apple and walnut trees and a kitchen garden. With farmland beyond, it offers a genuinely rural life that is comfortable from day one.
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Mons Lodge: a nineteenth-century front with a contemporary heart
Tucked into a quiet, tree-lined cul-de-sac within walking distance of Kildare Town's centre, Mons Lodge is described by the listing as a former officers' residence dating back to around 1830. That history is the listing's claim rather than something independently confirmed, but the street-facing elevation certainly carries period character: white render, a pitched roof, sash windows and a small entrance porch set behind a boundary wall. The house has been extensively restored and extended, and its two halves are frank about their differences. The front rooms retain a period scale, with a marble fireplace and stove in the sitting room and fireplaces in the upstairs bedrooms, while behind them opens a large vaulted kitchen, living and dining space with rooflights, herringbone floors and sliding doors to a patio. According to the listing, heating comes from an air-to-water system, and the BER is B, which places the house unusually well for an older building in terms of comfort. Much of the interior fabric has been renewed, so buyers should approach it as a characterful lodge reworked for modern living rather than an untouched survivor. For those who want to walk to shops and the station, and to come home to a house with a past, it offers an appealing balance between old and new.
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A modest cut-stone cottage near Dunlavin, plain and honest
At Freynestown, near Dunlavin in west Wicklow, just beyond the Kildare border, this small detached cottage represents the humblest end of the heritage spectrum, and is no less interesting for it. The listing describes it as an original cut-stone cottage, and the photographs show a symmetrical front with a central door flanked by windows, a pitched roof and thick walls whose depth shows in the window reveals. Inside, the arrangement is simple: a hall, a kitchen with dining and living space, two small bedrooms and an attic room lined with timber. This is the kind of compact, practical home that housed generations of rural families across Ireland, built with local materials and little ornament, and its plainness is part of its charm. The cottage sits on a site of around an acre with a garage alongside, which the listing suggests makes it suitable for extension. It is roofed, enclosed and appears capable of continued occupation, but it is very much a house for someone prepared to take on a thorough refresh. Approached with patience and respect for its proportions, it could become a characterful country home rather than a blank canvas.
Worth checking: The photographs indicate significant dampness and dated fittings, and the listing states that the WC is located in a separate building to the rear. Refurbishment beyond cosmetic work is likely to be needed before it meets modern expectations of comfort.
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Projects with a past
Heritage homes to restore
No properties are included in the restoration section of this edition.
No restoration properties are included in this edition. The guide refreshes monthly.