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Kildare
County Kildare · Leinster

About Athy

Athy, Baile Átha Í in Irish, is a town in County Kildare, 42 km north-east of Kilkenny, with 11,035 people at the 2022 census. It stands on the N78, R417 and R418. The map gives it 6,319 buildings and 166 named streets, with 221 places named on them in 95 kinds, and 104 things to see in and around it. By the number of buildings on the map it is the 6th largest of the 54 settlements this site covers in County Kildare.

Population
11,035 at the 2022 census
Where
42 km north-east of Kilkenny, 62 km from Dublin
Position
52.9924° N, 6.9836° W, 71 m above sea level
Area
24.82 km²
Roads
N78, R417, R418, R428, L4006, L4007, L4015 and L8062
Governed
Kildare County Council, in the province of Leinster
Twinned with
Grandvilliers, France
On the model
6,319 buildings, 166 streets, 221 named places in 95 kinds
16th-century White Castle (left) and Cromaboo Bridge crossing the River Barrow as seen in the evening light.
16th-century White Castle (left) and Cromaboo Bridge crossing the River Barrow as seen in the evening light.·Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
White Castle at the River Barrow in Athy.
White Castle at the River Barrow in Athy.·Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Athy in order

10 of the places on this map carry a date on Wikidata, running from 1179 to 2016. That is not a history of Athy, and it is not written as one: it is the order in which the things still standing were built, which is the part a map can actually tell you.

11792016Moone AbbeyErnest Shackleton
The twelfth century
  • 1179Moone AbbeyHistoric churches · 11 km from the centre
The thirteenth century
The sixteenth century
The eighteenth century
The nineteenth century
The twentieth century
The twenty-first century

County Kildare since 1841

Every census of the county, which is the only way to see what happened to rural Ireland: the fall from the Famine runs for a century, and the recovery is recent.

247,77457,892114,48818412022

Source: Central Statistics Office, table F1001 'Population at Each Census', read through the PxStat API, read 2026-09-20.

What to see

Closest to the centre first, with how far each one is.

All 104 things to see

Getting around

By road

The map records the N78, R417, R418, R428, L4006, L4007, L4015 and L8062 running through Athy. 68 car parks on the map.

By bus or train

There is a station in the settlement. 9 lines call at 29 stops here. Plan a journey for the day and time you are going.

Schools and services

11 school or colleges on the map.

Questions people ask

Where is Athy?
In County Kildare, in the province of Leinster, 42 km north-east of Kilkenny and 62 km from Dublin, on the N78, R417 and R418.
How big is Athy?
11,035 people at the 2022 census. On the map it is 6,319 buildings and 166 named streets.
What is there to see in Athy?
104 things the map records in and around it, the closest being White Castle, River Barrow and Fish and 1798 memorial.
How do you get to Athy?
9 bus and train lines call at 29 stops here in the published timetable, run by Go-Ahead Ireland, Iarnród Éireann / Irish Rail and JJ Kavanagh. There is a station in the settlement itself.
Has County Kildare grown or shrunk?
The census counted 114,488 people in the county in 1841 and 247,774 in 2022.
6,319
buildings on the model
166
named streets
221
named places
95
kinds of place

Buildings, streets, places, roads and position are OpenStreetMap, counted by this site rather than quoted from anywhere. Population, elevation, area and twinning are structured claims on Wikidata (item Q251091). County population is the Central Statistics Office. Journeys are the National Transport Authority’s published timetable. Every sentence on this page is written from those numbers; none of it is copied from a description of the place.

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