Visiting An Irish Castle
Kilkenny County
Kilkenny Castle, according to Wikipedia is
“a castle in Kilkenny, Ireland built in 1195 to control a fording-point of the River Nore and the junction of several routeways. It was a symbol of Norman occupation and in its original thirteenth-century condition it would have formed an important element of the defences of the town with four large circular corner towers and a massive ditch, part of which can still be seen today on the Parade.
In 1967, Arthur Butler, 6th Marquess of Ormonde, sold the castle for £50 to the Castle Restoration Committee for the people of Kilkenny. The castle and grounds are now managed by the Office of Public Works, and the gardens and parkland are open to the public. The Parade Tower is a conference venue. Since 2002, ceremonies for conferring awards and degrees on the graduates of the Kilkenny Campus of the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, have been held at the castle.”
👍Here’s where the trip to Ireland began!
We loved touring the castle. But let me back up just a bit.
We got a late start on Friday morning, and by the time we drove to Kilkenny, it was time for lunch. We spent quite a bit of time hunting for parking, and finally found an area designated for it.
Just down the alley about 2 blocks was an interesting looking pub, and of course, you can’t go to Ireland without ordering the fish and chips, right?
Fish is always batter-dipped and the portion sizes are huge. And it’s not stereotyping to say that the Irish are BIG on potatoes. There are potatoes at just about every meal. To be fair, we didn’t actually eat in anyone’s home, so the Irish at home may eat very differently than restaurants would make you think. I’d love to get an Irish citizen’s take on this.
After lunch, we’re ready to take the castle by storm….erm….you get my drift.
As narrow as the streets are, the towns are really made for walking. And once again, hundreds of people out walking and enjoying the shops and generally acting like it’s Mardi Gras — even in November — the off season for tourists.
We took the self-guided tour through the castle and then walked back through the town, across a foot bridge back to the parking lot.
Steve drove us to Blessington to eat at a restaurant he’d been to the night before when he’d gone out for pizza.
But here’s the thing: we found out there’s more than one Blessington, and we’d gotten on the wrong road to the wrong Blessington, ended up in the middle of nowhere in the hills.
The GPS reader said: “In 800 feet, park your car and prepare to walk the rest of the way to your destination” — but we were out in the boonies with no buildings anywhere. It was very, very dark. We turned around to head back and found ourselves on a one-lane paved highway and praying that no cars were coming from the opposite direction.
They were.
Apparently people here are used to driving in close quarters and know just how to handle it. Vehicles just pulled over into the bushes and scrunched by as best they can. We’ve scraped more than one hedgerow on the passenger side. Watch the short video below to get an idea:
When we found the restaurant, I thought I’d try the chicken curry. Not a good choice. It wasn’t spicy…well, just a tiny bit…..but it wasn’t as flavorful as I’d hoped, and Steve also remarked that his steak (he got the daily special) wasn’t quite as tasty as it might have been. But we’ve had so many delicious meals since we arrived, that this was probably just a blip.
This was the second day I walked over 7,000 steps and my app congratulated me for my efforts…lol…. my legs were really aching when I got home this time, and it’s not easy to get up and down those stairs to the second floor. And then back down the stairs in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.
Tomorrow, we pack and head back to Dublin for Jim Gaffigan’s show. I finally get to see JG and I only had to fly out of the country to do it!