Naas

Naas

GPS Coordinates: 53.218034, -6.663687 | View On Google Maps ⇨

The name Naas – in Irish An Nás, Nás na Ríogh or Nás Laighean – means a place of assembly and the town was an important gathering place from Gaelic times. Pre-Norman settlement here is likely to have taken the form of a ringfort, or dún. There is a reference in the Annals of the Four Masters to Dún Nás.

The Gaelic settlement at Naas was conquered by Richard de Clare in 1175 and granted by him to his Baron, Maurice Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald’s home lordship was in Pembrokeshire, in Wales, and he brought Welsh settlers to Naas with him to help build the medieval town. Dedications to St. David that survive to the present day (St. David’s Church, St. David’s Castle) reflect this Welsh connection.

The Anglo-Norman town of Naas was laid out in a typical medieval pattern, with a long central street – now North and South Main Street – having smaller streets or laneways branching off it at right angles. Two mottes, known today as the North and South Moats, are the remains of earth and timber fortifications dating to the early Anglo-Norman settlement.

The town grew quickly. Naas was granted a weekly market in 1186 and an annual fair in 1226. Naas was granted a charter by King Henry IV in 1409 and a murage grant (the right to collect tolls for the purpose of building town defences) by King Henry V in 1414. Further murage grants were made in 1451 and 1468. The fifteenth century also saw the construction of a number of tower houses within the historic town. Only one of these, St. David’s Castle, survives today.

Despite the numerous murage grants recorded for Naas, there is some debate about whether a town wall was ever actually built. No known above-ground remains of the wall survive today. The existence of defences of some sort - whether these took the form of a stone wall or of earth and timber embankments – is strongly suggested by the form and layout of the town, with burgage plots extending to either side of the main street. In addition, there are references to six gate houses in Naas. Unfortunately these had all been removed by the nineteenth century and their former locations are not known with any certainty.

Naas today is a busy and still-expanding town. The area has a strong association with horse-racing; Naas and Punchestown race-courses are both located nearby. There is an annual food festival, and a fantastic new library and cultural centre, which opened in the renovated 18th-centuryTown Hall in 2024.

Image: Detail from first edition Ordnance Survey Map via osi.ie



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