Thursday 8 August – Kilkenny
As usual we started the day by opening our eyes and then wandering down to breakfast. Breakfast was quite good – we had a seat next to the full-length windows with a view of the castle.
We needed to be at our Segway tour start point by 9:45, so we headed off around 9:15 walking there. It was only a few hundred metres up the road. The guy there was really nice – given we’ve ridden segways quite a few times before we were able to jump straight on and show our skills then head off 🙂
The best part of the Segway tours is that you get a history lesson while you see a lot of the sights of the town. We find it’s the best way to get your bearings and work out what you want to see more of.
We were taken to the oldest inn, Kyteler’s Inn and told the story about how the lady back in the 1300s was presumed to be a witch because four of her husbands died in quick succession. This would be our dinner point later in the night. Following this, we went around the exterior walls of the castle. Along the way the guide showed us the statue to ‘Hurling’ – which is like a religion around these parts.
Following the tour we continued to St Mary’s Church where we saw some of the stone walls that had been replaced. Individual blocks were numbered because with fixing them, they had to take a photo and put the blocks back exactly where they came from. We were also shown parts of the old wall that surrounded the city – it was at least a couple of metres thick.
The next stop was ‘Parliament street’ opposite the current court house and brewery area. Again some fascinating stories about what happened during the 1500-1700s.
Another amazing place was the ‘Black Abbey’ where an Alabaster statue had been found in the walls during renovations. The date on the statue was 1264. They don’t know why it was hidden in the walls.
On the way back to our start point we went past where they used to have the brewery for Smithwicks. It was shut down and all production moved to the Guinness factory in Dublin a number of years ago. We also visited the World War I memorial. An interesting fact (and no answers yet) – there were a number of people who were listed with a deceased date of 1921, years after the end of the war. The youngest person also listed was 14 years of age. Wow.
After finishing the tour we went back towards the castle. It is arts festival time so there were markets with people selling their artwork. We ventured onto the castle and had some afternoon tea before looking around for a while. The castle was owned by the Butler family up until about 50 years ago. What a grand place to live in.
Our dinner tonight was at Kyteler’s Inn. On the way there we saw a person swimming in the river. How dedicated they were – googles, cap, full body suit and a buoy floating behind them. Great food with great Irish live music at the Inn. We had a front row seat. Ros had Irish Stew and I had beef followed by dessert. I had to do it – Kilkenny in Kilkenny. I wasn’t sure if I would like it too much because I didn’t like Guinness, but it was really good. Following the night of live entertainment we headed back to the hotel for some rest.
