During restoration a few quaint-shaped bottles containing liquid were found in a recess, and previously it is stated that an old gentleman sitting at a table, had been discovered built up in some part of the walls, but that he fell to dust at once when air was admitted. Two underground passages are believed to connect the castle with the churchyard on the one hand, and a pagan tumulus or burial moat on the other. The grooves of the portcullis by which the main entrance was protected are to be seen at the hall-door, and also the square holes for fixing beams of timber, which added to the security. The hall had a stone vaulted ceiling at the time of restoration, which was removed to give greater height. A new storey was also added to the building at this time. The “Evil Eye Stone” is carved with a group of grotesque figures, and is situated 17 feet above the ground, in the quoin of the “Guard Room,” near the entrance-gate of the ancient bawn of the castle. Maurice FitzGerald, 3rd Baron of Offaly, seems to have parted temporarily with his interest in Kilkea to Christiana de Marisco, a niece of his wife’s, through whom a royal claim on the manor was established. In 1317 it appears to have been in possession of the Wogan family. Sir Thomas de Rokeby, Lord Justice of Ireland, died in the castle in 1356. In 1414, the O’Mores and O’Dempseys, having invaded the pale, Thomas Cranly, Archbishop of Dublin, and Lord Deputy, accompanied the Royal troops as far as Castledermot, where he and his clergy remained praying for the success of the arms. The opposing forces met at Kilkea, where a battle was fought, in which the Irish were defeated. A great many human bones having been found in a field south of the castle, it is likely to have been the scene of this conflict. John FitzGerald, 6th Earl of Kildare, nicknamed “Shaun Cam,” or Hump-back John, again defeated the native Irish at Kilkea in 1421. It was here, too, that the “Great Earl,” Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare and Lord Deputy of Ireland, got his death wound. In August, 1513, he started on an expedition against a castle belonging to the O’Carrolls, and now known as Leap Castle, in the King’s County. While the Earl was watering his horse at the River Greese, near Kilkea, attended by the Mayor of Dublin and a splendid retinue, he received a wound from one of the O’Mores of Leix, which in a few days proved fatal. He was moved by gentle stages to Kildare, where he died. He was thirty-three years Chief Governor of Ireland. During the rebellion of the “Silken Thomas,” 10th Earl of Kildare, in 1535, Kilkea seems at first to have formed one of the headquarters of his native sympathisers. The surrounding country having, however, been laid waste by the Earl of Ossory, we read that he made an appointment with Sir William Skeffington, the Lord Deputy, to meet him at Kilkea. He waited with his army for three days, but the Lord Deputy being ill, he did not arrive.