page_title: Kilteel
section_title: Medieval Period
hierarchical_section_title: Kilteel / History / Medieval Period
caption_attribution_description: English: Kilteel tower-house, Kilteel, County Kildare, Ireland
context_page_description: Kilteel is the name of a village, townland and civil parish located in the barony of South Salt, County Kildare, Ireland. The townland of Kilteel Upper contains the remains of a church with a decorated Romanesque chancel arch, the ruins of a 13th-century preceptory of the Knights Hospitaller and a well-preserved 15th-century tower house. The historic settlement is located on the southwest corner of the English Pale and served an important function as a border fortress during the medieval period.
context_section_description: Kilteel church
  A ruined church southwest of the village contains the highly decorated remains of a Romanesque chancel arch or doorway. Excavations in 1977 and 1978 suggested the first church  was a single cell stone building built after 800 AD. The carved Romanesque figures may have been taken from a separate church and incorporated into the extant building during the construction of the preceptory in the 13th century. The 12th-century High Cross  to the north may mark the site of the Romanesque church, possibly built under the patronage of Diarmait Mac Murchada, whose mother was of the Meic Bráenáin.
  The later church, ruined in 1630 but restored later in the 17th century, had fallen into disuse again by the early 18th century, when Protestant services may have moved to the adjacent parish of Rathmore. In 1935 he decorated fragments of the chancel arch were recovered from a farmhouse adjoining the castle and reinstated by Harold Leask. 
  Hospitaller preceptory
  The church and lands of 'Kilheile' were in the possession of the Knights Hospitallers before 1212, but it is unclear when the preceptory was built; no foundation charter or original grant of land survives. James Ware described the preceptory as founded by Maurice FitzGerald, who died in 1257, while Kenneth Nicholls suggested it may have been founded by his father Gerard FitzMaurice who died in 1204. The prior of the preceptory is first referred to in the Justiciary Rolls of 1308. The preceptory was one of seventeen in Ireland and general chapters of the order were held there in 1326, 1333 and 1334, suggesting a substantial foundation. The remains include traces of a large sub-rectangular enclosure, 200 metres long and 150 metres wide, which may represent the original enceinte, a substantial gatehouse containing a guardroom and the ruins of a second gatehouse. A suit of armour was recovered from the ruins in the early 19th century.
  Pale boundary
  In the medieval period Kilteel served as a border fortress on the marches of the  English Pale, under attack from the Gaelic O'Byrne and O'Toole families of Wicklow. In 1355 Edward III issued letters requiring those appointed for the defence of the marches to take up their duties in the wards of Kilteel, Rathmore and Ballymore, noting the 'depredations and burnings of Obryn and his accomplices' .  An act of 1488 setting out the boundaries of 'the four obedient shires' of Louth, Meath, Dublin and Kildare described the Pale boundary as passing through Kilteel and Rathmore. An act of 1494-5 required the boundary to consist of 'a double ditch of six feet high above the ground at one side or part which mireth next unto Irishman '. A portion of the Pale boundary with traces of a possible earthen bastion is visible in aerial photographs southeast of the medieval church. Archaeological excavations suggest the denuded remains continue east, forming the boundary between the townlands of Kilteel Upper and Cupidstown.
  Tower house
  A substantial tower house was built to strengthen or replace the earlier defences in the 15th century. This rectangular, five-storied structure contains four floor levels above a barrel-vaulted basement with a second vault over fourth-floor level. It is adjoined to the southwest by a gatehouse and was originally adjoined by a bawn. An 1833 depiction of the castle in the Dublin Penny Journal shows a steeply gabled house adjoining the gatehouse, possibly of late 17th or early 18th century date. The archives of Trinity College Dublin contain an undated drawing from the Edwin Rae Collection depicting a similar building. A cannonball, possibly of 17th century date, was  recovered from near the castle in 1901.
caption: Kilteel Castle today
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