Visit Kilkenny Places

Welcome to Visit Kilkenny Places
The Walkfo guide to things to do & explore in Kilkenny

  

Kilkenny Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Kilkenny

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Kilkenny history

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Kilkenny began with an early sixth-century ecclesiastical settlement, with a church built in honour of St. Canice. The Kings of Ossory, O’Carrolls and Fitzpatricks, had residence around Cill Chainnigh. Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, Richard Strongbow, as Lord of Leinster, established a castle near modern-day Kilkenny Castle. A remarkable early trial for witchcraft was that of Alice Kyteler (involving also her maidservant, Petronilla de Meath) instigated by the then Bishop of. Richard de Ledrede, in 1324.

Kilkenny culture & places

Kilkenny is one of Ireland’s most visited towns and a base from which to explore the surrounding countryside. Art galleries, historic buildings, craft and design workshops, theatre, comedy, public gardens and museums are some of the main reasons to visit the town. Points of cultural interest include St. Canice’s Cathedral and St. Mary’s Cathedral.

Arts and festivals

Kilkenny Tradfest takes place over the St. Patrick’s Day weekend in March and includes the parade and the Tradfest music festival. The annual Cat Laughs comedy festival takes place every June bank holiday week. The Kilkennomics is the world’s first economics and comedy festival in November. Savour is a food festival which happens in October every year.

Music

Music in Kilkenny is a rich and vibrant music scene with traditional Irish Music and artists such as Kerbdog, Engine Alley, R.S.A.G., My Little Funhouse and groups like Kilnenny Music. Many pubs have Irish traditional music sessions.

Theatre

The Watergate Theatre in Kilkenny is a centre for the performing and visual arts. It provides a varied programme of professional and amateur dramatics, classical and contemporary music, opera and dance. The Set Theatre is a smaller theatre located on John Street in the city.

Film

Kilkenny has hosted the Subtitle European Film Festival each November since 2012. Award-winning animated studio Cartoon Saloon and film production companies Young Irish Film Makers and Mycrofilms are all based in the city.

Media

KCLR is available on 96FM and is an independent local radio station. Beat 102-103 is a regional youth radio station broadcasting across the South East of Ireland. Newspapers have been produced in Kilkenny for centuries.

Community

Kilkenny was named as the Academy of Urbanism European Great Town for 2008. The Academy Chairman, John Thompson, said “it is great to have an Irish town coming through in this year’s awards” The town won the Irish Tidy Towns Competition in 1985.

Kilkenny toponymy

Kilkenny is the anglicised version of the Irish Cill Chainnigh, meaning Cell/Church of Cainneach or Canice. This relates to a church built in honour of St. Canice, an Ulsterman, on the hill now containing St Canice’s Cathedral and the round tower. This seems to be the first major settlement.

Kilkenny landmarks

Kilkenny Castle and St. Canice’s Cathedral and round tower are examples of the monastic settlement. Rothe House on Parliament Street is an example of an Elizabethan merchant townhouse located on the only completely surviving burgage plot in Ireland. Black Marble or Black Marble was used to decorate many of the city’s buildings.

Kilkenny Castle and city walls

Castle in Kilkenny city was the seat of the Butler family. The first stone castle was begun in 1204 by William Marshall the site was completed in 1213. Part of the collection of the National Art Gallery is on display in the castle.

St. Canice’s Cathedral and tower

St Canice’s Cathedral, also known as Kilkenny Cathedral, dates from the 13th century and is the second longest cathedral in Ireland. The cathedral is named after Saint Canice, who also gave his name to the town. Beside the cathedral stands a 100 ft 9th century round tower.

Bridges

Green’s Bridge, John’s Bridge and the Ossory Bridge are four main bridges in Kilkenny City. Each of the bridges spans the River Nore in St. Canices Parish in the townland of Gardens. The present-day bridge was built in 1766 after the ‘Great Flood of 1763’ and is reputedly the longest single-span reinforced bridge in Ireland.

Old Woollen Mills

The Old Woollen Mills was built in the 1800s and is located on the north side of the city. It was one of the largest employers in the area. The site covers 90,000 square feet (8,400 m) and has more than a mile of river frontage onto the Nore.

Kilkenny geography / climate

Kilkenny is situated in the Nore Valley on both banks of the River Nore. It is 117 kilometres (73 mi) away the capital Dublin and 48 kilometres (30 mi) north from the nearest city Waterford. The elevation is 60 metres (200 ft) above mean sea level. The main religion is Catholicism, however there are Church of Ireland, Presbyterian, Methodist, Jewish and other religious traditions.

Climate

The climate of Kilkenny is a changeable oceanic climate with few extremes. The highest air temperature ever recorded in Ireland was 33.3 °C (91.9 °F) in June 1887. The maximum daily sunshine was 16.3 hours on 18 June 1978. The warmest and sunniest month on record was August 1995.

Governance

Kilkenny is part of the Carlow–Kilkenny Dáil constituency and the South European Parliament constituency. It was previously represented until 1800 in the Irish House of Commons and in the United Kingdom as Kilkenny City from 1801 to 1918. It is not currently governed as a city, but it is both common and permissible to continue to refer to the city, per Section 10(6) of the Local Government Act 2001.

You can visit Kilkenny places with Walkfo Kilkenny to hear history at Kilkenny’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Kilkenny has 36 places to visit in our interactive Kilkenny map, with amazing history, culture & travel facts you can explore the same way you would at a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout Kilkenny, being in the moment, without digital distraction or limits to a specific walking route. Our historic audio walks, National Trust interactive audio experiences, digital tour guides for English Heritage locations are available at Kilkenny places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Kilkenny & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 36 audio facts unique to Kilkenny places in an interactive Kilkenny map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Kilkenny Places Map
36 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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Kilkenny historic spots	Kilkenny tourist destinations	Kilkenny plaques	Kilkenny geographic features
Walkfo Kilkenny tourism map key: places to see & visit like National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top tourist destinations in Kilkenny

  

Best Kilkenny places to visit

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Kilkenny has places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are a selection of the varied Kilkenny’s destinations you can visit with additional content available at the Walkfo Kilkenny’s information audio spots:

Church of Saint John the Evangelist, Kilkenny The Church of Saint John the Evangelist or John’s Church is a Gothic Revival style church in Kilkenny, Ireland. The Church was designed by William Hague and built from 1903 to 1908 on the site of an earlier church located in the graveyard.

Campagne (restaurant) Campagne (French pronunciation: ​[kɑ̃.paɲ], meaning “countryside”) is a restaurant in Kilkenny, Ireland. Head chef Gareth Byrne, formerly of Chapter One, opened the restaurant in 2008.

Stephens Barracks Stephens Barracks (Irish: Dún Mhic Stiofáin) is a military installation in Kilkenny, Ireland.

Switzer’s Asylum Switzer’s Asylum also known as Saint James Asylum was founded by James Switzer of Kilkenny in the 1800s for the housing of twenty poor widows.

James Stephens GAA James Stephens is a Gaelic Athletic Association club located in Kilkenny, Ireland. The club was founded in 1887 and has enjoyed equal success in both hurling and Gaelic football.

Visit Kilkenny plaques