About County Kilkenny
County Kilkenny is one of Ireland's most historically rich counties, its medieval city one of the best-preserved in Europe. The Nore and Barrow rivers flow through a fertile landscape of Norman castles, ancient abbeys and limestone villages. Kilkenny's strong Norman heritage gives it a character distinct from the more Gaelic west, sophisticated, urban, with a long tradition of craft and culture.
History
Kilkenny was the capital of Norman Ireland, home to the great Statutes of Kilkenny in 1366, the attempt to stop Anglo-Norman settlers becoming too Irish. The Confederation of Kilkenny in the 1640s made the city briefly the capital of Catholic Ireland. The Butlers, Earls of Ormond, dominated the county for centuries from their castle on the River Nore.
How Kilkenny families left Ireland
Kilkenny families emigrated in large numbers during the Famine, many through the port of New Ross in Wexford. The county's strong hurling tradition, Kilkenny is the most successful hurling county in Ireland, followed its diaspora to America, where Kilkenny associations kept the sport and the culture alive.
Places worth visiting in County Kilkenny
- Kilkenny Castle, the magnificent Butler stronghold overlooking the River Nore, continuously occupied for 500 years
- Jerpoint Abbey, one of Ireland's finest Cistercian ruins, with notable carved stone figures
- Rothe House, the Tudor merchant's house that now contains the county's genealogical archive
- The Medieval Mile, the remarkably intact streetscape of medieval Kilkenny city
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