Let's see your CB1100 out on the road!

[Tev62]

A nice cool but bright day to take a lunchtime spin. I’m Parked up besides this “folly”, built just outside the old Castletown Estate in Ireland. It was built at a cost of £400 to provide employment for the poor of Celbridge, Co Kildare when the famine of 1740–41 was at its worst in Ireland.

It is out of the way on a quiet country road with little passing traffic, not many people know it exists. It got saved with a large donation to a restoration society by an American donor Rose Saul Zalles back in the 60’s.

Long ago in its past a Lady Louisa lived there, a great-granddaughter of King Charles II of England. His nemesis was Oliver Cromwell who defeated him at the Battle of Worcester in 1651 leading to the period where England became a Republic (of sorts).

It is great the little stories that an outing on motorbikes can bring. I inadvertently passed this folly on my bike one day when out bimbling, taking random roads and seeing where the bike took me. I had to look it up when I got home so another education for me and an interesting back story.