Our trip is May 22 to June 5,this is my 5th and my husbands 7th time in Ireland.
May 23 to 27- Co Leitrim visiting family and friends
May 28 & 29 -Galway city
May 30/31 & June 1-Kilkenny (Wed. to Sat)
June 2 to 5-Dublin city (flying Wed. morning)
Kilkenny is the only area,on this trip, we have not been to.We have been to Cashel/Cahir and Glendalough/Powerscourt on other trips.What day trips from this area would you suggest?Any ideas are welcome we like everything,touristy ,non touristy,outdoors indoors anything.
Michele has pretty much covered it! I love Kilkenny - such a sweet little city. We had a great evening of live trad music at Kyteler's Inn, just down the alley from the castle. Across the street is a great sandwich shop, Marble City.
Rothe House is a Medieval Merchant's Museum down along the high street - something a little different.
Inistioge is the village much of Circle of Friends was filmed in, a movie with Minnie Driver, based on the Maeve Binchy book (worth a read!)
Kells is definitely a good exploration - but watch out for the sheep droppings! LOTS of sheep guard the place. We went on a drizzly day, and slick is even worse than dry :)
We stayed a week in Knocktopher Abbey, about a half hour away. It was a 14th century abbey turned resort, but they have a great restaurant in the 'vault'. It's on the way to Jerpoint Abbey, which is definitely worth some time. I've been there three times now!
__________________
May the light be your guide and the darkness be your comfort!
I think we will give the city of Kilkenny Wednesday afternoon and all day Friday.Thursday we will do a day trip on R700 to Jerpoint/Thomastown - R700 to New Ross.This sounds like an all day excursion.
Saturday we need to get an early start to Dublin its going to be a very busy weekend.
Well-We fell in love with Kilkenny! All the suggestions where perfect,and we got to most of them.We toured the 3 cathedrals (went up the round tower),the castle,toured the brewery,and the home/garden across the street(?).The food and music was great-Zuni,cafe sol,marble city gastro pub and good music at Kytelers. On our day trip we started with Jerpoint Abbey thru Inistioge then to Woodstock gardens to our last stop Kells priory(highlight of the day). We stayed at The Pembroke - Great location,nice hotel with breakfast and parking included. Thanks for all the inside info on Kilkenny ,we can not wait to return.
Since it is my favorite "city" in Ireland, I'm delighted that you liked Kilkenny. If you have the time we would love to hear all about your trip. Are you going back again some time?
Michele, Yes Kilkenny is a city.We had a chat with a women who turn out to be the Mayors wife,and she said they don't like to be called a town. I wish I was as talented a writer as Bob is because our trips are alot like his.Visiting,visiting,and more visiting(lots of tea and snacks,and sometimes whiskey-you can't say no).The cousins are very stealth about paying the check,that we don't even know it is happening.The area our family is from is very small.By day 2 everyone knows we are there,and we better not miss anyone in our visits because we will hear about it next visit.
Are we going back -How can we stay away.We are finally empty nesters and can let cheap air fare dictate when we go. I check the airfare every day with an app I have,October is looking reasonable.