Carton House is a country house and surrounding demesne that was the ancestral seat of the Earls of Kildare and Dukes of Leinster for over 700 years. Located 23 km west of Dublin, in Maynooth, County Kildare, the Carton Demesne is a 1,100 acres estate, from an original estate of 70,000 acres. For two hundred years, the Carton Demesne was the finest example in Ireland of a Georgian-created parkland landscape. In the 2000s, much of the demesne was redeveloped into two golf courses and the house into a hotel complex. History Beginning of the Carton Demesne During a history spanning more than eight centuries, Carton Demesne has seen many changes. The estate first came into the ownership of the FitzGerald family shortly after Maurice FitzGerald, Lord of Lanstephan ( 1105-1176), a Cambro-Norman noble, played an active role in the capture of Dublin by the Normans in 1170 and was rewarded by being appointed Lord of Maynooth, an area covering townlands which include Carton. His son, Gerald FitzMaurice (c. 1150-1204), became jure uxoris 1st Baron of Offaly, and his descendant John, 4th Baron of Offaly (c. 1250-1316), became the 1st Earl of Kildare in 1315. Under The 8th Earl of Kildare (c. 1456-1513), a long-serving Lord Deputy of Ireland, the FitzGerald family reached pre-eminence as the virtual rulers of the Lordship of Ireland between 1477 and 1513. The Lordship of Ireland was replaced by the Kingdom of Ireland in 1542. However, the 8th Earl's grandson, The 10th Earl of Kildare (1513-1537), better known to history as 'Silken Thomas', was executed at Tyburn in February 1537, with his five uncles, for leading an uprising against the English Crown. 'Silken Thomas', previously styled as Lord Offaly, had succeeded to the earldom in December 1534. Although the FitzGeralds subsequently regained their land and titles, they did not fully regain their position at either the Irish or British Courts until the 18th century, when The 19th Earl of Kildare (1675-1743) became a noted statesman. First house at Carton The first record of a house at Carton was in the early seventeenth century when William Talbot, Recorder of Dublin, was given a lease of the lands by the 14th Earl of Kildare (d. February 1612) and is thought to have built a house. The house and lands were forfeited to the Crown in 1691 and in 1703 sold to Major-General Richard Ingoldsby, Master General of the