Our day started with an adequate breakfast at Celtic House B&B and a planned self-guided tour of Kilkenny Castle. From there we were to do a self-guided walking tour of Kilkenny to take in the hot spots. On the walk to the castle we stopped by a Hurling monument installed since my last visit to Kilkenny. Hurling is a popular sport. We had seen children practicing while we were in Glendalough. After a quick stop at a candy store we were off to the castle.
We got to the castle grounds and took few pictures before venturing inside for the self-guided tour. The first stone castle at the site was said to built around 1213 and 3 of the original 4 stone towers still stand today. The castle was owned by the powerful Butler family for over 500 hundred years. Having fallen into various stages of decay, it was sold to the town of Kilkenny for 50 pounds in 1967. This was my third visit to the castle and each time, more and more restoration has taken place.
Shortly after we began the self-guided tour Seana advised that she had developed a headache. These aren’t your average, take-two-aspirin kind of headaches. They can become major events. She wanted to finish the tour of the castle and anyone who knows her would not be surprised by that.
Immediately afterward we pointed her in the homeward direction and her brothers took up an arm each to guide her there. Several times I wasn’t sure she’d be able to get there on her own feet but she mustered what strength she had and it proved to be enough. After some strong medication, she went to bed. I was fairly exhausted myself so I opted to nap whilst our young men went on a walk-about all by themselves.
They returned after several hours having adventured at least as far as The Black Abbey, visited several pubs, and made acquaintance with some of the cats from Kilkenny. After some visiting and catching up, we needed to get some food into our girl’s tummy.
Her headache had left but she was still slightly dizzy. Not too dizzy to make it to Matt The Millers Bar for dinner though. We ordered way too much food and ate most all of it between the four of us. The pub was so much quieter than any had been the night before.
We finished up our meals and as we headed back to the B&B I suggested an evening tour of Kells Priory. I was sure we would not have time to fit it in the next morning prior to leaving Kilkenny. We grabbed what we needed and headed off close to dusk to explore.
Kells Priory was established in 1183 and housed Augustinian priests from Bodmin in Cornwall. In the 15th Century the priory was walled off and 5 towers installed to protect the inhabitants. This is a lovely place to visit. There were only a handful of people there, including three young men who definitely did not want to cross paths with us. We thought they were partying but their furtive attempts to hide made me anxious.
On the way down the hill to the ruins, Keenan needed to check out a tree. While completing some business there he discovered a geo cache. I had only heard of these things and never seen one. It was a waterproof container stuffed into the crotch of the tree with instruction. The instructions were to add the finder’s name and location and then re-cache it. There was a website listed where the location could be entered. It’s new location will be on an entirely different continent! Now that was pretty cool.
We spent much time wandering about at Kells Priory. This was a perfect place for the kids who all love all kinds of old stuff.
When we arrived back in Kilkenny it was all I could do not to join them for one more stop at a pub. I know tomorrow will be a long day so I held back. I am The Mom afterall. In spite of Seana’s headache, it turned out to be another lovely day. We would not have had the energy to visit Kells had we traipsed all over Kilkenny. The boys were happy to share their pictures and experiences. I was happy to have a snooze. Hopefully by tomorrow Seana will be back on the mend again.
Plum Loco Travel Adventures 