Kilkenny

Kilkenny Castle

Saturday morning the bus pulled out of town with Dorothy and 37 American students headed to Kilkenny. Heather, Ally, and I were among the students. We probably drove through some nice scenic areas but I wouldn't be able to tell you because I was sleeping for most of the time. I did wake up once while we were in Kildare county and Dorothy told us about all the championship horses that were bred there and Ireland's most famous stud lives there. It is a very expensive county to live in. Next thing I knew we were in Kilkenny!

The name Kilkenny comes from two words of the Irish language (Gaelic). Kil means church and Kenny is for St. Canice's Cathedral- a 13th century cathedral. We started our day at Kilkenny Castle which was primarily a residential castle. The famous Butler family lived there from the 14th century until 1935!! At that time most of the items in the castle were auctioned off and the people at the castle have tried to get as many things back as possible. One of the most famous paintings on the tour had ended up in a residence in New York and a visitor from New York was took a tour of the castle and tipped them off as to where the painting was. They found it and bought it back, haha!

One side of the castle was knocked down in an attack long ago but the other three wings still remain. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the castle but my favorite room was the gallery. It had all the original family portraits that they were able to find. At one point there were 200 portraits in the gallery but they have only been able to get about 46 back. That is still a lot of portraits to see.

After Kilkenny Castle we walked down the street to Kyteler's Inn for lunch. It was delicious! We had chicken breast and chips (I tried mine with vinegar first but ended up using the ketchup) and for dessert we had Bailey's cheesecake. Our walking tour guide, Liam, met us at the restaurant. The first story he told us was about the restaurant and apparently the woman who used to live there, Alice Kyteler, was a 14th century witch! She had 4 husbands and all of them mysteriously died from poisoning. She went on trial and her maid was killed but she ran away to England and nobody saw her again. Awesome. By the way, at one of the tables in the basement (which is where our party was sitting) there was a witch sitting at a table. After the story I understood why.

Creepy Witch

Liam with two of the girls on our tour. He was so cute!

Liam took us past the shops of Kilkenny and through some narrow medieval streets on our way to The Black Abbey. The church was built in 1225!! At one point it was 4 times the size it is today but they went through some rough time. It was even a courthouse in the 16th century! The stained glass windows were beautiful.

A seriously old church

I couldn't fit the whole window in the shot, it was HUGE

We also saw the place where James Hoban grew up. He is the architect who designed The White House. He lived in Kilkenny before moving to America.

Funny story, his house is now a hair studio, hahaha!

We got some time to walk around so I bought postcards. One of which I am sending to my cousin Kenny. =) Ally found a Claddagh ring she liked. We went to the 2 Euro store... kinda like a dollar store but everything is 2 Euro. I bought some very cool things like hangers and dishwashing soap. By then it was time to head back to the bus. The driver put on the Ireland vs France rugby game because it was kind of a big deal. I put my headphones on and slept the whole way back, haha! Elodie, Marine, and Cecilia actually went to the game and told me France had lost but they still had a good time. I apologized to them for not caring and sleeping through their big match =)