Ancient fortress, ancient pub, sparkling pub music, and a last great B&B

April 18, 2013

Ancient fortress, ancient pub, sparkling pub music, and a last great B&B - Kilkenny

April 3 & 4, 2013

We got a bit lost getting to the B&B, but we make it, have some tea and shortbread and upon recommendation from Mairead, our hostess, we head to Kyteler’s Inn for dinner. Kyteler’s Inn and pub is in the medieval core of Killkenny. The Inn dates to 1324 (see pic), and the actual building dates to the late 1200’s. So it’s been around awhile – and as Donna notes this was our favorite pub and best music of the trip. More on that later.

We have a wonderful breakfast that morning, and with directions from Mairead, we head to Cashel and the Rock of Cashel. On the way, we stopped at Burnside Pottery, where Donna bought 2 little pots. But it was the poignant story that we will remember. The owner/potter was a friendly man who had moved from England 22 years ago. When Donna asked what brought him to Ireland, he sighed and his eyes became glassy. He said his late wife was from Ireland. She died of cancer about 5 years ago. He has two children aged 18 and 20. Donna was teary as we drove on to Cashel, and I’m surprised we didn’t go back and buy up everything he had.

Another cold clear day and very windy at the Rock of Cashel. We walked right on to a guided tour after paying our admission, which was great as our guide was very good. We stood inside a Romanesque chapel that was still intact that is 1,000 years old. Walls surround the site that includes the Romanesque chapel (finest in Ireland), a complete roundtower, a 13^th century gothic cathedral and most of the castle keep still intact. This was the seat of power for over 1,000 years for the kings and churchmen who ruled over the region. This is one of the few places that Queen Elizabeth (who is a dead ringer for my mother who was born in the same year as Elizabeth) and Phillip visited when she made her historic visit to Ireland in 2011.

After touring the Rock of Cashel we headed back to the Kilkenny area and walked around the Kells Priory, just down the road from our B&B. The large scope of these ruins which were fairly intact was amazing – and very lightly visited, considering it’s perhaps the best example of an ancient priory in Ireland.

We had some tea back at the B&B, before heading into Kilkenny (we are 6 km out of town in the countryside). We walked around town for an hour or so, before heading back to Kyteler’s for food and more music. Kyteler’s has their music earlier than most pubs, which was great for “old suckers” like us. Tonight from 6:30 – 8:30 they had music and Irish dancers; then the Raglan Rogues played from 8:30 – 10:30; we took it all in. This was so much fun. The three musicians that played with the step dancers were excellent. We found out later from Mairead, that the accordion and tin whistle player was Anthony Mccauley. All three musicians were excellent, but he was especially great. Mairead said he has toured with Riverdance. While we were there a lady (from CA) and her son came in and sat at the table next to us. The lady was tapping her foot and she asked her son if he would dance, he said no, then she asked a young man at another table and he said no – so this very dapper gentleman who was sitting in a beautiful blue pinstripe suit, comes over and says he’d love to dance with her. They were great; you would have thought they had danced for years together. Mairead told us the next morning that the gentleman was Adrian Cashin, a tailor in town, who is also a musician. At 8:30 we transfer to where the Raglan Rogues are playing and sit at a table right next to them. It’s a Thursday and the place is packed. There are people from Croatia, Germany, Australia, the USA, and a number of locals too. We buy two CD’s and wish that we would have bought another one from the first group. This was a really fun last night (our actual last night is in our motel by the Dublin airport tomorrow night, but it doesn’t really count).