Things to do
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Adare Friary
A Franciscan friary of 1464 founded by the Earl of Kildare, roofless with its cloister and tower standing, now inside the golf course of Adare Manor and reached with the club's permission. It is the most complete of the village's three houses.
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Adare Manor
A Victorian calendar house with three hundred and sixty-five windows and fifty-two chimneys, rebuilt behind its own facade in a two-year closure and reopened in 2017, in a hundred and sixty hectares on the Maigue. The golf course hosts the 2027 Ryder Cup.
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Curraghchase Forest Park
Three hundred hectares of woodland, lake and arboretum around the burnt-out shell of the de Vere house, with waymarked loops and a heron colony on the lake. It is ten minutes west of Adare and rarely busy, and the car park takes a fee at the barrier.
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Desmond Castle
A thirteenth-century castle on the bank of the Maigue with a moat, a great hall and a keep inside a curtain wall, besieged and taken in 1580. Access is by guided tour from the heritage centre in season only, and the walk out along the river takes ten minutes.
