An a whim we decided to book a last minute trip to Kilkenny on Friday 13th! Although I have lived in Ireland all my life I haven't visited much of my homeland at all. One of my 23 before 24 was to visit three new places in Ireland, which I have only managed one sadly! Kilkenny is a small enough city only an hour and an half from Dublin by train and has lots to offer! If you love history head to Kilkenny Castle for a great insight into Irish gentry life or take a walk in the gardens where we stumbled upon a playground...
We took an archaeological tour of the city on Saturday which was organised as part of a festival. Some of the sights worth seeing are the beautiful St Canice's Cathedral which is well worth a visit, and the Round Tower offers excellent views over Kilkenny and a peak at the Bishop's Palace beside it which is now owned by the Heritage Council.
As we hadn't really planned our trip, I hadn't much time to come up with an itinerary or looked at places to eat. We tried a few places Friday night but most of them had no tables free! We ended up at The 67 Bar at Langtons. We were pleasantly surprised by the yummy food and the great atmosphere in this bar and the were glad we had ended up there! Langtons also own the kitschy little Bridie's Bar & General Store next door, which offers cute little presents and nostalgic items from yester-year!
The place that really stood our for us was TBA Cafe @The Hole in the Wall! We found this place by accident and couldn't resist going down the narrow entrance and were delighted at what lay in store for us! With two sandwiches, a soup and a selection of cakes on the menu the choice was limited but I liked that! We both ended up getting The Archer which involved Parma ham, red onion marmalade, Sun dried tomatoes, grated cheddar and toasted to perfection. The sandwiches were delicious and the gigantic Hot Chocolate I got was impressive with it's blow-torched marshmallows! Their plum lemonade was so different but delicious! All in all a great experience, with nice staff, great surroundings (a Tudor Mansion built by Martin Archer in 1582) and simple, nourishing food!
We stayed at the lovely Pembroke Hotel with our room looking over Kilkenny Castle and a massive breakfast the next day! If you are looking for an AMAZING shopping experience head straight across the road to Shutterbug. Beautiful clothing with really unique pieces like my (really loud) silk shirt! Finally it was the Mick Minogue depiction of Dame Alice Kyteler that really put the cherry on top of my trip. Minogue is an artist I have been following for a while now and his pieces are really unusual, so stumbling onto one of his works was a great surprise!
Kilkenny I'll be back!
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