Maynooth sits in a useful location for day trips across the eastern half of Ireland. Dublin is 35 minutes by train. The Kildare town heritage sites — the Irish National Stud, Japanese Gardens, and St Brigid's Cathedral — are about 40 km south. Newgrange and the Boyne Valley passage tombs are about an hour north by car.
Carton House, the former seat of the Dukes of Leinster and one of the great Georgian country houses of Ireland, is barely two kilometres from Maynooth town centre. The grounds are partly accessible and worth a walk if the house (now a hotel and golf resort) is not your target. Conolly's Folly, the 18th-century arch-folly built to provide employment after a hard winter, stands near Castletown House in Celbridge — about 10 km south and a straightforward drive through pleasant countryside.
