If you find yourself in this area on any tours of Ireland here are a few highlights to see. The first recommendation is the ruins of Nenagh Castle. The castle served as the main seat of the Butler family until 1391. After that they moved to Gowran ,...
Inistioge (Tighes Island) is a very pleasant example of the little Irish village should you wish to see one on any tours of Ireland. It has a quaint church, a standing cross, and a local square. Time seems to have stood still with the lime trees lining...
Lying on the banks of the Little Arrigle just south of Thomastown, Jerpoint Abbey ranks among the finest Cistercian ruins in Ireland, despite the loss of many of its domestic buildings. Founded in about 1160, the fortified medieval complex rivalled nearby Duiske Abbey in prestige....
Inistioge (“Teoc’s or Tighe’s Island”) is a most pleasant example of the little Irish village with church, cross, spirit-grocery, petrol-pump grouped round a quiet shadowy square. Time stands still, and the children under the lime-trees wait happily for the bus that has forgotten to come....
Kilkenny, County Kilkenny Before the Normans came in the 12th century, Kilkenny’s houses clung to the 6th century monastery of St Canice and the settlement was the capital of Ossory, a sub-Kingdom of Leinster. But the strategic possibilities of the hilltop site where quickly grasped by...
Graiguenamanagh (pronounced Graig-na- manna) means ‘dwelling of the monks’. The monks in question were sensible enough to place their abbey in the lee of 1703ft Brandon Hill, in the wooded valley where the Rivers Barrow and Black Water meet. This is the valley whose peace...
The Augustinian priory of Kells – in full, Kells-in-Ossory (or Ceanannas Osraighe), to distinguish it from its more famous namesake in County Meath – was founded by Geoffrey FitzRobert in 1183, shortly after the Anglo-Norman invasion. It was to house the monks he brought to...
The dark, biscuit-coloured tower of Jerpoint Abbey, with its battlements, rears above a bend on the road South from Thomastown. The Abbey is one of the most awesome religious remains in Ireland, yet, because many of its domestic arrangements are still recognisable, it also gives...
One of Ireland's most attractive towns , where medieval lanes and buildings blend with Georgian elegance. The town initially grew round a monastery founded by St. Canice in the 6th century. The tower built on the same site four hundred years laer can be climbed...
The effigies in St. Canice’s Cathedral are a must see on your tours of Ireland and tell the story of two how, by the 15th Century , two families descended from the Norman invaders had come to dominate most of Irish life. These were the...