Ireland Guide
Kilkenny, Carlow and Wexford
Kilkenny Castle
Address: Above the Nore
Website: www.heritageireland.ie
Opening time: April & May daily 10.30am–5pm; June– Aug daily 9.30am–7pm; Sept daily 10am–6.30pm; Oct– March daily 10.30am–12.45pm & 2–5pm; guided tours every 30min, last tour 1hr before closing
Price: €5.30; Heritage Card
Kilkenny's stately castle is unquestionably the city's dominant feature. Sitting strong above the Nore, the original stone castle was built here in the early thirteenth century by William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, replacing the previous motte and bailey fort, and purchased in 1391 by James Butler, third Earl of Ormonde. His family's wealth was founded upon huge areas of land acquired in Kilkenny and Tipperary and his descendants, surviving siege by Cromwell in 1650, subsequently built the grand entrance gateway later that century. However, James Butler, second Duke of Ormonde, one-time Viceroy of Ireland, was forced to flee to France in 1715 when he was arraigned for treason for supporting the Stuart cause. He died in Avignon in 1745, by which time the castle had fallen into disrepair, and it was only the marriage two decades later of John Butler, seventeenth Earl of Ormonde, to a local heiress that revived the family's fortunes, resulting in the creation of the parkland and modifications to the castle itself.
Further work began around 1826, enhancing the castle's medieval exterior while adapting its interior in contemporary country-house style. The Butlers remained in residence until 1935, when another decline in the family's fortunes led to their departure and the auction of the castle's contents. The building fell into disrepair, until it was acquired by the Irish state in 1969, and was much restored over subsequent decades.