The civil parish covers 11,591 statute acres, containing the following townlands: 1605 - Aghferylin 1655 - Addoone 1278 - Britach 1260 - Bretag' in le Cowlagh 1655 - Cloghoge 1250 - Killbride 1540 - Tenaud[5] *[6] Much of the parish consists of mountain and blanket bog; the boundaries are formed by the southwest–northeast ridge of Cromwellstownhill and Cupidstown Hill to the west, the Brittas River to the north, the peaks of Seefin (621m), Seefingan (723m) and Kippure (757m) to the northeast, the River Liffey to the southeast and a small stream to southwest.

The R759 road, one of two routes crossing the Wicklow Mountains, runs southeast above the Liffey through Manor Kilbride, Knockatillane, Cloghleagh, Scurlocksleap, Athdown and Kippure.

A cluster of four cairns of Neolithic or Bronze Age origin and a ringfort are located atop Golden Hill west of the village.

[16] Ringforts of likely early medieval date are located atop Golden Hill,[17][18] below Cloghleagh Church,[19][20] and adjacent to the deserted settlement at Lisheens.

[32] A 2009 survey recorded the earliest legible gravestones, from the first decades of the 18th century, clustered around a raised area at the graveyard's centre, possibly the site of the church.

Liam Price speculated the church was the 'Ecclesia de Villa Reysin' noted in the 13th century extent Crede Mihi.

[46][47][48] The status of the area as a marchland is noted in an early grant: "in consideration that the Preceptory, lordship or manor of Kilheale, in Kildare county, is situated in the marches thereof near the Irish enemies, the Tholes (O'Tooles), where resistance and defence are required, grant to Thomas Alan and Mary his wife, the said lordship.

[50] A tower house at Threecastles in Blessington parish, three kilometres west of Kilbride, controlling a fording point across the River Liffey, may have been built by the Earl before his death in 1513 to protect the territory against the O'Tooles.

[51][52][25] In 1524 the 8th Earl of Ormond seized Threecastles and installed a garrison in response to the Fitzgeralds' murder of Sir Robert Talbot.

They were afterwards conveyed to Dublin, and all cut into quarters, excepting Maurice, who was imprisoned in the King's castle, until it should be determined what death he should receive.

[55]An entry in Friar Clyn's Annals of Ireland suggests Kilbride was one of a number of settlements on the borders of the Pale raided and burnt by Rory O'More in 1577.

[56] Lisheens townland, 2 km north of Kilbride village, contains a deserted settlement of medieval or early modern date,[57] close to two circular enclosures, a ringfort and a cross-inscribed stone.

[60] Despite the nominal conclusion of the conflict in 1653, Wicklow continued to serve as a refuge for the remnants of the Confederate forces or Rapparees.

The Cromwellian regime excluded the county from military protection, proclaimed it a free-fire zone and sought to remove the Catholic Old English and Gaelic Irish population.

[62] In 1702 Francis Allen of St. Wolstans leased the 'Manor and Lordship of Kilbride', coterminous with the civil parish, to Henry Fitzpatrick of Friarstown for a term of 299 years.

[68] A Royal Irish Constabulary station marked south of the chapel on the 1853 Primary Valuations had passed out of use before 1900, but may be incorporated within an existing dwelling.

[74] A National school adjacent to the first station on the 1853 Valuations map had passed out of use before 1900, replaced by a new building in Knockatillane built by the Moore family.

The Kildare Observer described it in 1904:[79] At the corner of the Manor demesne stands Lalor's Inn, a[n] hostelry where the traveller will find every comfort and accommodation to strengthen him for his tour, which properly only commences there.

[80]In April 1923, During the Irish Civil War Free State troops arrived at Mooney's Public House in search of John Moore, a former British Army soldier and a member of an Irregular flying column operating in the area.

Moore, described by James Ambercromby as 'an orange lawyer of doubtful fame ' and by Richard Lalor Sheil as 'Sir Forcible Feeble', was an aggressive defender of the Protestant interest in Parliament, mocked by his opponents for his intemperate opposition to Catholic Emancipation.

The house and lands were advertised for lease in the "Dublin Evening Post" in 1778: The Well Known lands of KIPPURE, in the County of Wicklow, Nine Miles from Dublin; where there is excellent turf, and good Water for Bleaching; a proper place for carrying the Linen Manufacture; good Grazing-Ground, and very improveable, having plenty of Marly-Gravel, and other Gravel, and within a few Miles of Lime-Kilns, where good Corn, Hemp, Rye, Flax and Turnips, may be raised in great Plenty, at an easy Expense; and great Sallow Plantations, commonly called Ossieries, may be raised, which would produce great annual Profit to Tenants.

[117] William Henry Ford Cogan, Justice of the Peace, Whig MP for Kildare from 1852 until 1880 and High Sheriff of Wicklow in 1863, built Tinode House in 1864, demolishing the earlier buildings.

[107][119][120] On 5 February 1923 during the Irish Civil War the building was burnt by an IRA flying column and remained ruined until its restoration in the 1970s.

George Moore was responsible for the construction of St John's Protestant Church at Cloghleagh in 1834, built with a grant of £900 from the Board of First Fruits.

Neville's 1760 map marks the freestone quarry on the slopes of Golden Hill which provided granite for Nelson's Pillar, the General Post Office, The Custom House and the Four Courts.

Weston St. John Joyce described the site in 1912:Keeping to the pathway, we presently reach a curious-looking stone house, which was erected as a residence for the manager of the iron mine some fifty years ago.

It would seem that no earnest attempt was ever made to work this undertaking to a successful issue as the great stone segments of the crushing wheel, now lying beside the river, and other machinery obtained from England, were never put together, so that the whole concern was a failure from the start.

The camp had accommodation for 8 Regimental Officers and 221 other ranks in 1904, but was not permanently occupied until the Irish War of Independence, when forty Black and Tan troops were quartered within.

[149] The Lamb Tram Station, Kilbride Manor and Tinode House, the last restored in 1973, survive in private ownership and are listed in the Record of Protected Structures for County Wicklow.

[151] The Special Area of Conservation (002122) encompassing the Wicklow Mountains extends across Shankill, Cloghleagh, Scurlocksleap, Athdown and Kippure.