Ireland, Part 2: kicking back in Kilkenny

Hello one and all! I'm back with the next installment of adventures down Irish highways and byways! To spare you from waiting in traffic jams for ages, I'll zoom an hour or so ahead of where my last installment ended...

So there we were, cruising down the highway from Dublin to Kilkenny, admiring the scenic countryside and quaint buildings, when we decided it was high time for some lunch. We tried searching for nearby restaurants using TomTom, but soon learnt that we would have to do it the old fashioned way, as all Tommy could tell us was the location of every MacDonalds from there to Timbuktu (and one lonely Abrakebabra)!

We chose a random exit and came upon a delightful little town that we never did find out the name of. We then thoroughly enjoyed what was probably the most delicious meal of our time in Ireland, at a restaurant that had a small cloth “ghost” travelling intermittently back and forth above the bar by means of an electric pulley system. The meal consisted of a wedge of deep fried crumbed brie with berry compote and salad, and roast turkey and ham with gravy and veggies. There were also quite a number of other Halloween decorations scattered around, which led directly to us striking up a conversation with an older couple that were exiting at the same time as us. We stood and chatted to them for a little while about where we're from, where we were going etc, and they told us that Kilkenny is one of their favourite towns. They also told us that Irish people are the friendliest in the world – a cause that they were certainly doing their bit to further! After this pleasant interlude, we then continued on our way.

Further into our journey, we passed through another little town (also nameless in our memories!) that had a massive old church ruin just perched beside the road in a totally nonchalant manner. We are blown away by how many times we see things like that over here... things that in Australia would be Heritage-listed, roped off, covered in explanatory plaques, and would require payment to see! We fueled up from the servo across the road, so afterwards we just walked right in through the open gate set into the roofless old stone walls and proceeded to explore. There wasn't another person to be seen, although there were piles of rubbish in one nook that indicated the local kids may hang out there with their fast food of an evening. But what an awesomely random find – I'll leave it to our photos to convey the rest!

Upon our late afternoon arrival in Kilkenny, we successfully located our pre-booked B&B, only to find it quite empty of welcoming hosts and with the following pink post-it note stuck to the door: “Mr Bord, will you please call next door to Breagagh View for accommodation”. As it turns out, our original host was on holiday in Spain, and his usual helper lady was unavailable, so it was fortunate indeed that the B&B right next door was happy to put us up for the night! After a short period of settling in, we set off into the town centre for some nighttime wandering.

What a lovely town! It was my favourite of all the places we stayed on the trip. After a walk through some quaint streets, we crossed a bridge over the River Nore and saw the imposing Kilkenny Castle across the water, white swans sliding elegantly through its reflection. Trying to capture this gorgeous scene in a photograph proved quite impossible. As visiting the castle seems to be one of the top 3 touristy things to do in Kilkenny, we later walked around to its front entrance to find out about tour times for the next day. We also came across a local folk band called Uisce Beatha playing live, and stopped to listen for a while – three young guys on guitars and one playing a bodhran, which is a traditional Irish drum. They were very good, and even played some Johnny Cash amongst the Irish tunes!

The next day, we slept in quite late and then checked out of the B&B and set off into town. Oh, we also met a nice American family at the B&B – the lady was in Ireland for a pharmaceutical conference, her dentist husband and two amusing children in tow. They were going to do a castle tour that day as well, and the little boy observed over breakfast that while he had seen plenty of suits of armour before, he had never seen a moving one. We didn't come across any during our tour (moving or otherwise), so I hope he wasn't too disappointed!

Before our tour started, we looked through a few shops and explored the Kilkenny Design Centre and the gardens of the stately Butler House (vine-covered house below) across the road from the castle.

We then joined our tour group and had a very educational tour of the castle for the next three quarters of an hour. The castle dates back to Strongbow in 1172 and has a very interesting history involving Dukes, Earls, close ties with the English royal family, wars, invasions, etc etc – we heard all about it during the tour, but I can't remember it all so if you're interested, click here for Wikipedia's version of events!

The last owner sold the castle to the Castle Restoration Committee for £50 in 1967, neglected and literally falling apart, and since then there has been a massive amount of very impressive restoration work that was going on even while we were walking through the rooms. They have gone to great lengths to track down and buy back the furniture and portraits that were auctioned off by the 1935 owners, build more cabinets exactly like the one that remained in the library, copy the exact print of the bright gold wallpaper using sections of it that had been preserved behind furniture, get carpet made by the London company that still held the original pattern, and so on! The only photos I took (as I wasn't meant to take any) were of the final room. This has only a third of so of the portraits that were originally on its walls, but I think you'll agree it is very very impressive!

After our tour, we did some more shopping and then had lunch at a rather quirky establishment that had a dented tuba hanging from the wall over our heads, and various other musical instruments mounted here and there. After lunch, we found a little music store on a side street and I decided to buy a few bits and pieces.

This was the point at which we realised that the plastic bag containing my pre-lunch shopping outcomes must have been left behind in the large department store we had just been to. Ben went back to have a look but returned empty-handed. This was a little saddening as, while I had spent only a few dollars, one item was irreplaceable: an old book of Irish songs that I had purchased at an op shop and wanted to learn on the tin whistle I was about to buy!

So anyway, I bought the tin whistle, an instructional CD for it, and a white guitar pick with a green shamrock on it (shamrock = three-leafed clover; traditional Irish symbol). By the way, I dug the guitar pick out of a jar full of various pick designs, thinking to myself “what a great, unique Irish souvenir” (not to mention cheap and almost weightless)... and then turned it over and saw “made in Australia” printed on the back. Ah, I love those authentic travel experiences!

Afterwards, we went back to the department store again and this time found the bag at Lost and Found, so I was very pleased about that! We then drove around Kilkenny a little more, saw the Black Abbey (another local landmark) from the car windows, squeezed through some alleyways barely wider than our vehicle, and set off for our next destination: Waterford!

Ben was pleased to be entertained by my tin whistle attempts for a substantial portion of the journey – after all, it's not every day one can drive through Ireland accompanied by live Irish music in one's front seat. Even if it did sound uncannily like grade 5 recorder lessons.

But alas, that brings me to the end of this chapter! Until next time! ox