Kilkenny - Kilkenny Castle, The Black Abbey, St Mary’s Cathedral and Rothe House and Garden

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Breakfast this morning was included in our room charge but, unfortunately, was not available until 9.00am with it being Sunday morning. With sightseeing to do today we were in the dining room on the dot of 9.00am. Steve and I ordered coffee, and then we were able to help ourselves to fruit, juice, cereal, toast, and pastries (but only had fruit and juice) while we waited for our breakfast to be cooked. Three times eggs Benedict and one full Irish breakfast were soon delivered.

I should add here that Bernie, Cathy and Steve sniffed and snuffled their way through breakfast. All three of them seem to have picked up some sort of sinussy bug. Steve was first to fall, followed by Cathy and Steve simultaneously. I have not succumbed. Touch wood!! …



After our breakfast we settled our bills and then rushed back to our rooms keen to clean our teeth, pack our toilet bags into our cases and then hit the road to Kilkenny. We meandered along the R740 to Shillelagh before turning onto the R725 to Tullow. From Tullow Syri had us travelling on local roads to the N80 which fed us onto the M9 at Junction 5.

After motoring down the M9 for a few kilometres Syri directed us to take the exit at Junction 8. Sometimes Syri just works, and she directed us without incident to the Cathedral Square Car Park. Arriving just before 11.00am we were lucky to make it into the car park across the street from St Mary’s Cathedral as there were dozens of people arriving to park their cars and race across the street for the 11.00am mass. Having left Tinahely ahead of us we were expecting Cathy and Steve to be in the car park ahead of us but … they were nowhere to be seen. Oh dear, what has happened to them this time?

By the time they arrived the car park boom gate thought the car park was full … even though we could see two places available. It became a waiting game of one car out, one car in with Cathy and Steve three cars away from the boom gate. Fortunately, not everyone was at the cathedral as people were returning to their cars and leaving the car park. Very soon three cars had exited, and Cathy and Steve were able to park their car.

We walked from the car park to Kilkenny Castle where our Irish Heritage/English Heritage cards gained us entry to complete the self-guided tour of the castle. The castle was originally an Anglo-Norman stone castle built by William Marshall, 4th Earl of Pembroke during the first decade of the 13th century in a commanding position above the Nore River crossing. Later the castle was occupied by the powerful Butler family for almost 600 years during which time many alterations and additions were made to the castle. In 1967 Arthur, 6th Marquess of Ormonde presented the castle to the people of Kilkenny in return for a token payment of £50. The Office of Public Works (sort of like the Irish National Trust) has cared for the castle since 1969.

During our self-guided tour, we made our way through the Chinese Withdrawing Room, the State Dining Room and the Entrance Hall. We continued up the magnificent Grand Staircase to the Tapestry Room housing two of five tapestries telling the story of Roman Consul, Decius Mus. After making our way through the Anteroom we found ourselves progressing through the Library and the Drawing Room before climbing the Cantilevered Stairs to the Blue Corridor, the Victorian Nursery, the Blue Bedroom and the Chinese Bedroom. We descended the Moorish Staircase to the enormous Picture Gallery Wing featuring a Marble Fireplace designed by J. H. Pollen and the remaining three tapestries … along with many other artworks.

After exploring the interior of the castle, we made our way outside for some photographs of the exterior. First the eastern façade from Kilkenny Castle Park before venturing down to the Rose Garden on the other side of the castle to photograph the western façade. The castle looks impressive from both angles!

Exiting the castle grounds were walked down to Rose Inn Street and then onto John’s Bridge to take a photo across the River Nore towards the castle. So many picturesque vantage points!! Near the bridge we happened upon Charlie’s Boutique Café which had a vacant table for four, so we dived in to take our lunch break. Excellent salad baguettes for the boys and delicious ham and cheese toasties for the girls.

After exiting the café, we turned into St Kieran’s Street and made our way along to Kyteler Inn. The inn was on our list because it is one of the oldest inns in Ireland dating back to 1324. Hmmn, I really do think that some places just rely on their one claim to fame and take it for granted that the tourists will flock to them. Like we did. And I for one was … underwhelmed. Sure, it’s a nice enough old building BUT couldn’t they make the effort to have real flowers in their window boxes??! I’m sure that in 1324 if they had window boxes, they were not stuffed full of plastic daffodils!!!

Our next stop was at the Black Abbey which was established as a Dominican Friary in 1225 outside the original walls of Kilkenny City. The full name of the abbey is the Church and Priory of the Most Blessed Trinity, but it is known locally as The Black Abbey as a reference to the black Capps that the friars wore over their white habits during the Middle Ages. The abbey had an interesting L-shaped layout.

Arriving back at St Mary’s we made our way inside the beautiful Gothic Cathedral. The cathedral is located at the heart of mediaeval Kilkenny and was consecrated in 1857 after taking 13 years to build. Modelled on Gloucester Cathedral, the cathedral is made from hand-cut Kilkenny Limestone and, at 186 feet high, is visible from all around the city. Rather than making our way out the front doors where we had come in, we followed a sign that pointed towards the Gift Shop and Exit only to find that the Gift Shop was closed, and the door was locked. Fortunately, we were let out by a man wearing robes. The Priest??

As I write this, I have realised that we visited the wrong cathedral today!! We had St Canice’s Cathedral on our list, but we went to St Mary’s. Oops! I don’t think any of us realised that there are two cathedrals in Kilkenny. The Catholic cathedral that we visited dating to 1857 and the MUCH OLDER Church of Ireland cathedral that dates to the 13th century and is the second longest cathedral in Ireland after St Patrick’s in Dublin. I’m so directionally challenged that I had no idea we turned ourselves around and headed south from The Black Abbey rather than north towards St Canice’s.

Feeling that we still had time to visit another place of interest in Kilkenny we headed to the Rothe House and Garden which was built between 1594 and 1610 for John Rothe and Rose Archer, one of Kilkenny’s wealthiest and influential merchant families. Three houses were built over time to accommodate John and Rose’s burgeoning family of 11 children. The second ‘house’ was more an extension to the original home and then a third house was constructed across a cobbled courtyard. At the rear of the dwellings the ‘burgage plot’ rises to an astonishing reconstruction of a 17th century garden.

With not one but two ice-cream parlours along the street from Rothe House it was declared ice-cream o’clock!!! We headed into Scrumdiddly’s first but there was such a queue we decided to head across the street to Oh! Donuts. OMG I am so disappointed with our ice-cream options so far. This place only offered ice-creams in a cup. In a cup?!! An ice-cream HAS to be in a waffle cone, in my opinion. I have also not had any luck with my favourite flavour – coffee. Bernie, as always was perfectly happy with vanilla. Today I had to settle for two scoops of salted caramel ice-cream in a cup and eat it with a silly little wooden spoon. Very disappointing.

We decided to take the scenic route to Waterford travelling on the R700 to Instioge to view the Green Bridge. Looking at something online last night I saw a picture of the bridge and though it looked very picturesque and worth a photo or two. When we arrived, we were looking first at the upriver side of the bridge, and it was clogged with debris that has been washed downstream. Hmmn, disappointing! Fortunately, there was a path along which we could walk to the other side of the bridge which looked much prettier.

To reach our accommodation for the next three nights we travelled amongst the hedgerows on narrow local roads between Instioge and the N25 near Rathnure … I think? It was nearly impossible to follow our route in the road atlas because the local road numbers are not printed in the atlas, we were just trusting Apple Maps to get us there! We continued on the N25 for a few kilometres before briefly venturing onto the N29 and then exiting onto the B711. Apple Maps did OK again this afternoon delivering us to the Diamond Hill Country House without any drama. Now that might sound very posh but … it’s not. It’s just a clean and basic room but, in its favour, it has plenty of parking. Unfortunately, we are not in walking distance of a pub or restaurant for the next three nights though, but I’m sure we’ll cope.

Rather than drive towards the centre of Waterford for dinner tonight we went to the closest option the Rhu Glen Hotel. They offered a pretty decent meal, but not sure if we want to eat there three nights in a row? We’ll have to investigate other options for tomorrow night that don’t involve driving too far.

We arrived back at our room after dinner, and it was still very warm. We fiddled around with the windows and managed to get them opened as widely as possible. When it got dark outside, I decided to draw the curtains located above the radiator only to discover that we had been sitting broiling in our room with the windows wide open and the radiator on full, ha, ha, ha. Needless to say, I turned the heating off to try to cool the room down a bit before bedtime.



Steps: 12,652 (8.19kms)

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