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In Kilkenny, Ireland, Walk a Mile Back to the Middle Ages

By Linda Gasparello

Just a mile-long walk in Kilkenny will take you back in time to Ireland in the Middle Ages. The city’s “Medieval Mile” has some magnificent sites, including the 13th-century, stone St. Canice’s cathedral.

“St. Canice’s has one of two round towers in Ireland that you can climb: The tower was built before the medieval period, in the 9th century. A monk may have a little chat with you as get on your way to the roof,” Colette Byrne, CEO of the Kilkenny County Council, said at the Association of European Journalists’ Congress, held in Kilkenny on Nov. 4-6.

Kilkenny’s brewing history began with monks, who settled at St. Francis Abbey in the 13th century. “The monks drank beer instead of water because the water quality was poor,” Byrne said, adding, “Good excuse to drink beer, I’d say.”

On the city’s High Street, which is part of the “Medieval Mile,” stands Ireland’s oldest operating brewery: Smithwick’s. It was founded on the St. Francis Abbey site by John Smithwick in 1710. Byrne said the beer is now produced by Guinness in Dublin and the Kilkenny County Council owns the old brewery, which it “reinvented” as “The Smithwick’s Experience Kilkenny” visitor attraction and center.

Byrne said the city is reinventing many of its landmark buildings. “We’re turning the 19th-century Evan’s Home, a former poorhouse, into a museum. It will house the Butler Gallery in two years,” she said. The gallery has more than 400 works, showing the evolution of 20th-century art in Ireland.

The arts are everywhere in the city, from murals on buildings to music in pubs to “eclectic festivals,” including the Kilkenomics Festival in November, “the world’s first festival of economics and comedy,” Byrne said.

I shot these photographs during a “Medieval Mile” walk, guided charmingly by Frank Kavanagh. “He’s the best tour guide in town,” said a boy, standing on the High Street with a hurling stick in his hand. Kavanagh smiled, took the stick from the boy, and raised it in the air to Kilkenny.

: AEJ members gather on the Parade, leading to Kilkenny Castle, for a walking tour of the “Medieval Mile.”

: Hurling statue built on the canal walk in Kilkenny

: Closer view of the hurling statue

: Tour guide Frank Kavanagh holding a hurling stick

: AEJ members stop near St. Mary’s Church

: An alley near St. Mary’s Church

: St. Mary’s Church roof and steeple

: A mural near St. Mary’s Church

: A wedding party on John’s Bridge

: Kitty’s Cabin sweet shop on Rose Inn Street

: Sweets in Kitty’s Cabin window

: A blaa (a doughy, white bread roll and specialty of the area) shop on Rose Inn Street

: A sign painted on a wall on Rose Inn Street

: A bookstore on the High Street

: A women’s boutique occupies the old Woolen Hall on the High Street

: The Gift Horse on Rose Inn Street’s painted sign

: The Gift Horse’s front window display

: A ceramic sign for a natural foods store

: Apples displayed in front window of Roots & Fruits on St. Kiernan Street

: Busy barbershop on St. Kiernan Street

: A house with simple lines on St. Kiernan Street

: A Celtic door knocker

: On Rose Inn Street, a wild Irish rose iron grill

: Spikes on a former Bank of Ireland building on the Parade, near Kilkenny Castle

: A sign in the alley leading to The Hole in the Wall tavern

: The Hole in the Wall tavern entrance

: The 16th-century Rothe House on the HIgh Street is a Kilkenny history museum

: The 1761 Thosel, with its lighted tower, is behind these High Street shoppers.

: The Kilkenny coat of arms on the Thosel

: A man selling remembrance red poppies in the Thosel’s arcade.

: The Court House on the High Street

: The Court House frieze

: The arched Butter Slip alley that connects the High Street to St. Kiernan Street, previously called Low Lane

: Built in 1616, the Butter Slip once provided a cool, retail location for butter vendors’ stalls.

: An iron lamp lights the Butter Slip.

: A shopper walks carefully down the Butter Slip steps.

: A young woman stands on St. Kiernan Street, asking for donations to Kilkenny women’s rugby

: The Black Abbey is down the street

: Busts in the balcony

: The Playwright pub on St. Kiernan Street

: Daniel W Bollards pub on St. Kiernan Street

: Daniel W Bollards pub

: The 13th-century Kyteler’s Inn on St. Kiernan Street

: Medieval Irish ashtray

: The 18th-century Smithwick’s Ale House on the High Street

: Smithwick’s Irish red ale was brewed in Kilkenny from the 1700s to 2014.

: The mural on a block of St. Kiernan Street.

: A visitor asks a young woman for directions.

: The mural was commissioned by the Keep Kilkenny Beautiful Committee.

: Mural section

: Mural section

: Mural section

: Mural section

: Mural section

: Mural section

: Mural section

: Mural section

: Blue-faced woman in mural above the St. Kiernan Street-level one

: The Black Abbey, with its five-panel Rosary Window, founded in 1225.

: A statue of St. Dominic, admiring The Black Abbey from across the street.

: The Black Abbey

: The Black Abbey

: The courtyard of The Black Abbey

: The courtyard of The Black Abbey

: One of The Black Abbey’s stained glass windows

: Medieval stone coffins in the courtyard of The Black Abbey

: One of the stone coffins

: Reflections of trees and a hanging lamp on a wall of the 12th-century Kilkenny Castle

: Tree along the Parade, leading to the entrance of Kilkenny Castle

: Kilkenny Castle

: Ducks taking an evening swim in the River Nore

: Ducks drying off on steps leading to the River Nore.

: Kilkenny Castle from the porch of the Rivercourt Hotel

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