We arrived in Kilkenny around 4:30 on Thursday and checked in. Our hosts at the Butler Court-Yvonne and John as well as Frisky were wonderful, and recommended places for us to dine and pubs for later in the evening. After some walking around the city center, we both had Irish Stew by the fire at the Kyteler’s Inn, a pub established in 1324. We then headed to Andrew Ryan’s Pub for a traditional Irish music session that must have been the place to be on a Thursday night, because it was packed. Arriving a few minutes before the music started we had front row seats. The music was amazing, and we had a great time. Dad would have really enjoyed the banjo. Meg wants me to learn to play the Uilleann Pipes
Friday we got a little bit of a slow start, but hit the historic must-see sights of Kilkenny including the impressive Kilkenny Castle, St. Canice’s Cathedral-begun in 1202 and the round tower built in 849(unfortunately closed for restoration, so we were not able to climb it), the Black Abbey founded in 1225 and Rothe House the house of John Rothe, a local merchant built between 1594-1610. We wandered the streets of this quaint town a little bit more, took in the Kilkenny Design Center and then headed to Ristorante Rinuccini, apparently THE place to eat in town.
We did not realize until after dinner that three of the places travel show host/writer Rick Steves mentions in Kilkenny are Kyteler’s Inn, Rinuccini’s and the Butler Court, but it is understandable. They are all special places that I would recommend to anyone coming to this part of the world.
1 response so far ↓
Amy // February 19, 2007 at 2:41 pm
zoe typed her own name here. she saw your pics & asked if they were princeton. your experiences sound magical! at first i thought you were describing your hosts as frisky, but then i saw the pic & realized you were
love, amy & zoe mae
talking about their dog.