Unquestionably Ireland’s most atmospheric medieval city, KILKENNY straddles the broad River Nore, doglegging past its imposing castle. Kilkenny’s medieval layout is centred on its hill and extravagant castle. Downhill from here the wide Parade leads down to the High Street, the main shopping district. This wends its way to the city’s other main landmark, the well-preserved, medieval St Canice’s Cathedral with its climbable round tower, en route passing Rothe House, architecturally impressive evidence of the city’s Tudor wealth. North of the city the major attraction is the strange calcite formations of Dunmore Cave.
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The first known settlement at Kilkenny is believed to have been a sixth-century monastic community founded by St Canice (Cill Chainnigh means “the church of Canice”). After the arrival of the Anglo-Normans, Strongbow erected a motte and bailey fort, overlooking the Nore, in 1172, which was later replaced with a stone structure by his son-in-law, William, the Earl Marshal. The latter also built a city wall and towers and forced the local population to live outside its boundaries in an area still known as “Irishtown” today. Subsequently, the city’s ownership passed through various hands, before James Butler, the third Earl of Ormonde, purchased the demesne in 1391.
Following the 1641 Rebellion, Kilkenny became the focus for the Catholic Confederation, an unlikely alliance of royalists loyal to Charles I and Irish landowners dispossessed by the Plantation. This established a parliament in Kilkenny, aimed at attaining Irish self-government and, in the process, restoring the rights of Catholics. However, its powers were short-lived, and, after Cromwell’s arrival in 1650, the city’s prosperity began to wane.
Nonetheless, nowadays Kilkenny still possesses an undoubted grandeur, largely untarnished by inappropriate modern building developments and, thanks to its castle and numerous other sights, as well as a lively nightlife and cultural scene, has become an integral part of the Irish tourist trail.
Northern County Kilkenny lacks instant appeal, the main focus of interest being Dunmore Cave, 10km north of the city off the N78. Formed in a limestone outcrop of the Castlecomer plateau, Dunmore’s series of chambers feature numerous beautiful calcite creations – curtains and crystals, stalactites and stalagmites; the most remarkable of the last stands some four and a half metres high. The cave is referenced in the Annals of the Four Masters, which recounts that the Vikings massacred a thousand people here in 928, a tale partially substantiated in 1967 when excavations uncovered the skeletons of more than forty women and children, and a Viking coin.
Some of the county’s finest spots lie towards its southern extremity, countryside defined by the lush valleys of the rivers Barrow and Nore. Near the Nore are major ecclesiastical remains at Kells and Jerpoint Abbey while, by the Barrow, both Graiguenamanagh and St Mullins are attractive places to stay. Near the beguiling village of Inistioge, you can explore the extensive gardens and arboretum of the Woodstock Demesne.
The major tourist sight in the south of the county of Kilkenny is Jerpoint Abbey, which lies on the N9, 20km south of Kilkenny city. Originally founded as a Benedictine house in 1158, the abbey was colonized by Cistercians some twenty years later. The oldest remain is the twelfth-century Romanesque church, but the rest, set around a beautifully colonnaded fifteenth-century cloister, follows the characteristic Cistercian design. The abbey features a number of thirteenth- to sixteenth-century tomb sculptures in the transept chapels and some intriguing carvings on the cloister arcade, including the “little man of Jerpoint” whose stomach-crossed hands and open-mouthed expression suggest either mirth or dyspepsia.
The jumping-off point for the abbey, THOMASTOWN, 2km to the northeast, is a pleasant riverside crossroads town on the Dublin–Waterford train line, which has a decent choice of places to eat and drink, and hosts a traditional music festival over the bank holiday weekend in early August. A walled town of some note in medieval times, Thomastown now maintains scant sense of its own antiquity, other than its old bridge across the Nore and the ruined thirteenth-century church of St Mary’s at the top of the main street, Market Street.
Walks in southern Kilkenny
Several worthwhile waymarked trails cross southern Kilkenny. The South Leinster Way runs for 100km from Kildavin in County Carlow, via 800-metre Mount Leinster in the Blackstairs Mountains, to Carrick-on-Suir in Tipperary. The most attractive part is in southern Kilkenny, between Borris – where the path intersects the Barrow Way – and Mullinavat, especially the 16km from Graiguenamanagh to Inistioge. The southernmost section of the Barrow Way, a pretty, 8km riverside path, is the pleasantest way to get from Graiguenamanagh to St Mullins, and there’s a new trail from Thomastown to Inistioge along the Nore – for information on the latter and on the forthcoming Kilkenny–Inistioge path, as well as on other walking and cycling routes in the county, go to wwww.trailkilkenny.ie.
On the east bank of the Barrow in County Carlow, 8km downstream from Graiguenamanagh, lies the gorgeous village of ST MULLINS, its dwellings appealingly arranged at the bottom of a valley around the village green. Opposite the green is a perfectly dome-shaped castle earthwork and just behind are the remains of a monastery founded by St Moling in 696, consisting of the remnants of a medieval church and a round tower’s stump.