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Tower or folly

Conolly's Folly

Near Maynooth, County Kildare

An obelisk on arches, built to give work in a famine.

The winter of 1739–40, the 'Great Frost', brought famine to Ireland. Katherine Conolly, widow of the richest man in Ireland, paid starving people to build this strange obelisk on a pile of arches, over 40 metres high, at the end of a view from Castletown House.

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When
1740
Where
53.3750, -6.5480
Group
Towers & follies

Visiting

Reached by a path from Castletown House estate. Free.

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