The Wonderful Barn is one of the stranger architectural sights near Maynooth: a tall corkscrew-shaped grain barn built in 1743 by Katherine Conolly, close to the Castletown estate. It was practical, decorative, and charitable all at once, commonly understood as a famine-relief project that also formed an eye-catcher in the designed landscape.
The spiral exterior steps are what make it unforgettable. You do not need long here, but it pairs well with Castletown, Conolly's Folly, or a wider look at the grand estates and eccentric structures scattered through this part of Kildare.