Our trip to Ireland in three months is coming along nicely and were looking at our Kilkenny stop for sightseeing.Well be in or around Kilkenny two days.We dont want to be too scheduled, so are making a list of places we might want to visit.I have been reading up on Irelands RUINS, so want to see some, but not all of course. (In the US, we have parking garages where our ruins would have been) Were spending an afternoon at Glendalough, before heading to Kilkenny for the night.The next day, we have on our possible list of to do , Smithwick's.,Black Abbey, Kilkenny Castle, St.Canices Cathedral. Well stay in Kilkenny again a second night.Heres our possible to do list, this day:Head towards Thomastown for Kells Priory and or Jerpoint Abbey.Then over to Fethard, on route to Cahir if time and onto Kenmare for the night.Any views on either Kells and Jerpoint or just see one with our days drive. In Cahir, we were hoping to see Cahir Castle if we ended up with time.We only have so many days in Ireland, and do have an idea of what wed like to see in those 15 days, but can be flexible on where we stay as well. Again, thanks to all you who have taken the time to post.
My book has directions on how to find the best entrance into Kells Priory. It is not toward Thomastown. If you have enough daylight you can see Kells after Kilkenny City as it is always open. But you do have a lot packed into that day so it may fall by the wayside.
What about the Rock of Cashel? You could see it and Cahir Castle on your drive to Kenmare. You might even squeeze in Kells if you start early enough.
Don't over plan, leave some flexibility and go with the flow. Heading where the wind and the weather guides you is a far more relaxed way of doing things. You are on holiday not delivering parcels if you don't make somewhere on the list no problem, but the more on the list the more you will think you have missed out on.
You will not see everything you want to see in a one hit trip Ireland (or anywhere else for that matter) isn't made that way.
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Two rules for Ireland, Take your time & bring a sense of humour
Thanks and we'd thought about stopping at the Rock of Cashel as well as Cahir on our our day to Kenmare so our timing that day will determine that.I did rather want to see the castle in Cahir, so not sure what all we'll get to on that day. That was rather my question, it seems like I have a number of ruins for this leg of our journey, and we can't see them all in two days that we'll be in this area (As Tony says, we may find we want to stay at one longer and miss others, which is fine) I'd thought Glendalough, Kells Proiry, Jerpoint Abbey and The rock of Cashel, were all ruins of some sort or other and in reading about them, the history of each is what's different as well as what's left of the buildings. That's why I was interested in your post's opinion of each. I also know we can't fit everything I've mentioned while in Kilkenny in one day, but these all seemed of interest to my husband and I so will see what we can and won't be sorry if we miss something else.
Although Jerpoint Abbey is worth seeing it would be well down on my "must see" list. They close on the dot of posted closing time and the last tour is usually an hour before that. Yes, there are a lot of ruins in Ireland. You can thank the Reformation and Cromwell for a lot of that.
Corey and Liam at Irish Fireside have a wonderful walking tour online that we used while in Kilkenny. It is a nice way to go if you do not know the city well.