A monastic settlement existed on Little Island from the 6th to the 8th Century A.D. A carving of a monk’s head from this period adorns the castle entrance to this day. The Vikings arrived in the 9th century and two fortifications were constructed on Island Vryk ‘Dane’s Island’. The Normans came next invading in 1170 and Maurice Fitzgerald, Stongbow’s cousin, was held prisoner on Little Island by the Ossermen during the conquest. He was duly rewarded with much land in the aftermath and thusly the island would become home to the Earls of Kildare for eight centuries.

Mount Congreve Gardens in Ireland’s Ancient East is home to one of “the great gardens of the World”. Home to six generations of Congreves and built in 1760 by the celebrated local architect John Roberts who also designed the two city Cathedrals. The Gardens comprise around seventy acres of woodland, a four acre walled garden and 16 kms of walkways. Overlooking the River Suir, Mount Congreve consists of three thousand different trees & shrubs, two thousand Rhododendrons, six hundred Camellias, three hundred Acer cultivars, six hundred conifers, two hundred and fifty climbers and fifteen hundred herbaceous plants. “When one plants anything, whether it involves five or fifty plants, they should be planted together and not dotted here and there.” Ambrose Congreve. Ambrose inherited the estate in 1963 and transformed the estate into a world class garden. Flora from all over the world were imported delivered directly to his private dock on the Suir. The gardens have won multiple awards.

Grannagh Castle, a large square enclosure with cylindrical towers, stands dramatically on the foreshore or the River Suir. James Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormonde, built the castle in the 14th century. Legend has it that the wife of the 8th Earl was a witch. One day looking downriver from the castle window she saw her greatest foe (also a witch) approaching so she conjured a storm to deter her rival, in response the other witch caused horns to grow from Margaret’s head, she therefore could not withdraw from the from the window. Strange noises are heard from the ruins during stormy weather. The Butlers lost the castle to Cromwell in 1649.