On the second day, we set out for a day trip to visit Kilkenny Castle and the Rock of Cashel. Driving in Ireland is an adventure for a couple of Yanks because the steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car and everyone drives on the wrong side of the road. It really takes two of us to drive in Ireland–one to drive the car and the other to remind the driver to stay on the left side of the road. At one point in Kilkenny, Dad exclaimed at a driver in our lane, “What is she doing?!” Since she was driving in the correct lane, I told Dad that she’s probably saying the same thing you are and only one of you is right.
The dominant feature in the small, medieval town of Kilkenny is the Kilkenny Castle. It was built in the 12th century and remodeled many times afterwards so it has influences from many different centuries. You can see by the photos that it started out as a fortress. During the tour, however, we could see that it was maintained more as a residence since Victorian times. The highlight was a long gallery used primarily to display works of art (the room is the longest in Ireland other than the Old Library at Trinity College we saw the day before).
After touring the castle, we walked around Kilkenny. It’s the kind of town that looks the way you expect Ireland to look if that makes any sense.
Next, we located St. Canice’s Cathedral, a Gothic style 13th century church. The castle and this cathedral essentially bookend the medieval town. It wasn’t open when we got there so we just looked at the outside of it.
We then made our way to the Black Abbey. It’s a Catholic church built in 1225 but no one knows why they call it “The Black Abbey.” Some say it was because the Dominican monks wore black capes over their white habits and others say it was because the Black Plague claimed the lives of eight of their priests. Cromwell, who was the enemy of all things Catholic, destroyed the Black Abbey in 1650 and it wasn’t rebuilt until 1816. It was open so we did get a chance to go inside. The church had beautiful stained glass.
After the Abbey, we left Kilkenny and headed to Tipperary (from where we were, it really wasn’t THAT long of a way, clearly the song was written from some other jumping off point). We went there to visit the Rock of Cashel, also known as “St. Patrick’s Rock.” It tops many visitor’s lists as Ireland’s most impressive site. More than just a rock, it has a Cathedral, a tower, and chapel along with tombstones and crosses. St. Patrick himself visited the Cathedral to convert one of the kings. St. Patrick’s cross is preserved inside the chapel. The place looked to me like it would make a great set for the climax of a movie–anything from a Bond-like thriller to an Omen horror film or a vampire movie. That’s probably not what they were going for.
For more photos of our visits to Kilkenny and the Rock of Cashel, check out the slideshow below:
