Kilkenny is quite a popular town on Irish travel itineraries and it became one of our favourite places to visit. It always felt lively even on a rainy, grey day and we visited the brand new library on a few occasions. It was the first library we went to and it was there that we discovered that we were able to sign up and borrow out books. It was newly build, literally having opened earlier this year and it has an amazing selections of books.
But the main focus of this blog post is our visit to Kilkenny Castle, the huge 800 year old castle that sits in the centre of town. It has been home to the powerful Butler family, who held the title of Earl of Ormonde throughout history. The castle has been kept in fine condition and we were able to take a tour through many of the rooms that still contain furnishings, tapestries and paintings. It was quite amazing.
The tour inside was at a small cost (the kids were free) but anyone can come into the vast castle grounds to enjoy the fields, walking trails, playground and rose garden. There is even a parkrun though the grounds on a Saturday morning.
Around the time of this visit, the girls revealed that they actually do enjoy visiting castles, and this one is especially impressive, it even had a child’s bedroom with some old and some ‘what creepy looking dolls on display. It’s been really interesting seeing castles in various states of preservation. There are so many you could visit across Ireland.
Also in Kilkenny is St Cannice Cathedral and Round Tower. Halie had said how much she wanted to climb a Round Tower -Hallie out of all the girls has been very interested in the few Round Towers we have seen at Glendalough and The Rock of Cashel. I had read that you can climb the round tower at St Cannice Cathedral but when I looked closer, it turned out that Hallie wouldn’t have made the minimal height requirement. So we never actually made plans to go and visit the Catherdral while we were in Kilkenny. But it seems like it would be a great place to visit in addition to Kilkenny Castle.