KILDARE, an inland co. of the province of Leinster, Ireland, distant, at its eastern border, about 14 m. w. from the English channel. Its greatest length from n. to s. is -40 in.; from e. to w., 27 m.; area, 418,497 acres, of which 356,787 are arable. Its sur face is almost one unvaried .plain, with the exception of the s.c. border, which meets range of Dublin hills, and the southern border, which likewise is slightly elevated. Its principal rivers are the Liffey and the Barrow, the latter of which forms in part its boundary. The Boyne has its source in Kildare, as has also the Blackwater. It is tra versed by the Grand and Royal canals. The most remarkable features of Kildare are the celebrated plain called the " Curragh of Kildare"—an undulating clown, 6 m. long, and 2 bioad, the site of the well-known race-course, the Newmarket of Ireland—and the bog of Allen. The solitary hill called Allen, which rises in the great central limestone plain, is a mass of granular compact greenstone and porphyry, with some red sandstone -conglomerate, which is quarried for millstones. The soil is generally a rich loam, rest
ing on limestone or slate. The total extent of land under tillage, in 1853, was 140,837 -acres; but the proportion of pasture land to tillage has been much increased, acres under crop iu 1876 being only 121,940. The pop. (1871) was 83,614, of whom 71,192 were Roman Catholics, 10,038 Episcopalians, and the rest of other denominations. The principal towns are Naas, Athy, and Kildare; but the number of minor towns is beyond the average of Irish counties. Kildare sends two county members to the imperial par liament. In antiquities of all historical periods, Kildare is peculiarly rich. In the time -of Geraldus Cambrensis the plain of the Curragh had a stone circle similar to that of Stonehenge; it is now a military camp. There are five round towers and some stone crosses still preserved, and many castles of the Anglo-Norman period, three of which are still inhabited. The well-known Roman Catholic college of Maynooth (q.v.) is -situated in this county, as is also the Jesuit college of Clongowes wood.