My Cuppa Irish Tea: The Medieval town of Kilkenny

We drove down to Kilkenny in the pouring rain the.entire.trip! I was praying that the weather would not be like this the whole time Mom C and MC were here. But everyone knows you don't come to visit Ireland for the weather. Ha! After we arrived we checked into the B&B, parked in town and walked around for a little while before dinner.

Kilkenny is a pretty city that is very colorful. It used to be an important center and occasionally even the capital of Ireland in the Middle Ages.

High Street

St. Mary's Cathedral is in the background

medieval streets

River Nore flows through the town

The River Nore and Kilkenny Castle in the distance

We all had dinner at Langton's which is a local restaurant/bar and they had many Irish dishes to choose from. Towards the end of our meal the band started to play great music. Too bad we were all exhausted to stay longer. We went back to the B&B and we all went to bed.

The next morning we had a lovely full Irish breakfast with sausages, ham, eggs, black/white pudding, bread, etc. We all filled up our bellies for the day before we started our adventure. We checked out of our b&b and headed to Kilkenny Castle to do the tour.

Our cute bed and breakfast

this was the family room in the b&b where you could relax and read

We drove to Kilkenny Castle which is a huge castle that dominates the town. The castle once had 4 sides but Oliver Cromwell's army knocked down one wall leaving it in the "U" shape, which is what we see today.

Kilkenny Castle

We first watched a little video in the turret of the castle. We learned how this once was a wooden fort built by Strongbow in 1172 and how it evolved into a 17th century chateau. The castle was bought by the Butler family in 1391 and stayed in the family until 1967. In 1967 the family sold the castle to the town of Kilkenny. Everything has been restored to the Victorian age.

The main gate onto the property

The Library

The original Library from the 19th century

View out of the front of the Castle

This staircase is based on a "Moorish" design

This was the "Blue Bedroom" and it has a really pretty portrait of the
Butler children that were living in the house at that time.

Another view out of the window

The Picture Gallery room I thought was one of my favorite rooms. Its just full of portraits! The pitched roof is also really pretty. I tried to get a picture of this room but the lady was watching me like hawk because we were not allowed to take pictures (and I had my camera out the whole time). So this picture is from the internet.