Very flat, Kildare. It is the flatness of this great limestone plain with its rich pastures and its proximity to Dublin that has made Kildare a place of importance since the dawn of history. Early Christian settlements prospered here, of which the Convent of St Brigid was the most famous. The Normans, with their infallible eye for good land, quickly made it their own and built a series of great tower houses and castles to defend the Pale from the Gaels of Wicklow and the south midlands. The county was the home of the Geraldines, the Leinster branch of the FitzGerald family, which completely dominated political life in late medieval Ireland, and later went on to be the only ducal family in Ireland. In modern times, the county's main association has been with sport. Most of all, it is the association with horse-racing, especially at the Curragh but also at Punchestown, that distinguishes the county. The Curragh is the most famous racecourse in the country and the home of the Irish Derby, and the county boasts a series of stud farms and training establishments that are central to the Irish bloodstock industry.
