Ireland Day 4: Kilkenny
As usual, this began with another
traditional Irish breakfast. By this time, I had wised up to the black
pudding, and successfully avoided it for the rest of the trip ;)
We decided to spend the day seeing the sights in Kilkenny. We first went to the Irish goods store outside of Kilkenny castle to go souvenir hunting. We ending up not buying too many things in Ireland. The major goods were clothing, such as sweaters, coats, etc. At least 30% of every souvenir shop was devoted to Guinness stuff. They had everything you could possibly imagine: shirts, socks, hats, mouse pads, fridge magnets, candles.
We looked around the outside of Kilkenny Castle for a while, but decided to put off the tour until later. This castle used to be four-sided, until its inhabitants pissed off Oliver Cromwell!
One of the large churches in Kilkenny (St. Canice's Cathedral) has a tall tower that you can climb up, so that was the next destination. Kilkenny is a pretty cool town. Lots of narrow little streets, tons of shops, lots of old stuff. The cathedral was pretty impressive from the outside, although we decided not to go in. The round tower that is next to this dates from the 9th century, and you can climb all the way up, so we did... The passageway got very narrow and steep towards the top, and the top was only 5-6 feet across! Not recommended if you have a fear of heights...
After getting our land legs back, we wandered over to the Black Abbey, an active abbey of the Dominican Monks in use since 1225. Once again, we didn't go inside, but it still looked pretty cool. There were flowers everywhere, which provided a great contrast to the dark stone of the buildings. The car is a Nissan Micra, an example of the teeny sub-compact cars that are all over Europe. They may be small, but they're very easy to park!
Nearby the abbey was the remains of the original city wall, complete with the gate. Old stuff is cool!
After lunch at an Indian restaurant, we headed back to the castle to take a tour of the interior. (Sorry, no pictures since cameras weren't allowed inside). Our tour guide was great, a very funny guy. The interior was pretty impressive. At one point, the entire place was in complete disrepair and almost falling down. The family that owned it sold it to the government for 50 pounds in the 1970s, and they have since restored a large part of it. Some highlights that I remember are the 3 foot thick door frames leading into the towers, and an incredible great hall with portraits of the family throughout the centuries. I definitely would recommend this tour... The castle had a nice rose garden too, but they were closing up the grounds when we arrived so I only got one photo (audience breathes a sigh of relief ;) ).
So that's the major happenings of Day 4. Next up, the Rock of Cashel, and a lot of driving!
Proceed to Day 5: Rock of Cashel, Killarney
Go back to Day 3
Return to index
All photos (c) Hoyt Heaton, 2003, yadayada....
We decided to spend the day seeing the sights in Kilkenny. We first went to the Irish goods store outside of Kilkenny castle to go souvenir hunting. We ending up not buying too many things in Ireland. The major goods were clothing, such as sweaters, coats, etc. At least 30% of every souvenir shop was devoted to Guinness stuff. They had everything you could possibly imagine: shirts, socks, hats, mouse pads, fridge magnets, candles.
We looked around the outside of Kilkenny Castle for a while, but decided to put off the tour until later. This castle used to be four-sided, until its inhabitants pissed off Oliver Cromwell!
One of the large churches in Kilkenny (St. Canice's Cathedral) has a tall tower that you can climb up, so that was the next destination. Kilkenny is a pretty cool town. Lots of narrow little streets, tons of shops, lots of old stuff. The cathedral was pretty impressive from the outside, although we decided not to go in. The round tower that is next to this dates from the 9th century, and you can climb all the way up, so we did... The passageway got very narrow and steep towards the top, and the top was only 5-6 feet across! Not recommended if you have a fear of heights...
After getting our land legs back, we wandered over to the Black Abbey, an active abbey of the Dominican Monks in use since 1225. Once again, we didn't go inside, but it still looked pretty cool. There were flowers everywhere, which provided a great contrast to the dark stone of the buildings. The car is a Nissan Micra, an example of the teeny sub-compact cars that are all over Europe. They may be small, but they're very easy to park!
Nearby the abbey was the remains of the original city wall, complete with the gate. Old stuff is cool!
After lunch at an Indian restaurant, we headed back to the castle to take a tour of the interior. (Sorry, no pictures since cameras weren't allowed inside). Our tour guide was great, a very funny guy. The interior was pretty impressive. At one point, the entire place was in complete disrepair and almost falling down. The family that owned it sold it to the government for 50 pounds in the 1970s, and they have since restored a large part of it. Some highlights that I remember are the 3 foot thick door frames leading into the towers, and an incredible great hall with portraits of the family throughout the centuries. I definitely would recommend this tour... The castle had a nice rose garden too, but they were closing up the grounds when we arrived so I only got one photo (audience breathes a sigh of relief ;) ).
So that's the major happenings of Day 4. Next up, the Rock of Cashel, and a lot of driving!
Proceed to Day 5: Rock of Cashel, Killarney
Go back to Day 3
Return to index
All photos (c) Hoyt Heaton, 2003, yadayada....