Ireland is one of my favorite travel destinations! On our most recent trip, we finally made it to Kilkenny, Ireland. This is a recap of the beautiful sights and delicious food and drink!
First let me start out by telling you what we didn’t know. We didn’t know that Kilkenny was such a huge tourist attraction. Silly us, right?
What we did know was that we wanted to visit a smaller town in the middle of the country. Given this criteria Kilkenny was recommended to us so we were all for it.
When I say tourist attraction I mean that Irish residents flock there on the weekends and on bank holidays. During the week, buses line up outside the castle filled with international tourists.
Oh yeah, did I mention there is a castle?
Now, if you happen to be one that steers clear of touristy areas, do not, I repeat, do not, let this keep you from visiting Kilkenny. It is by far one the cutest, quaint, clean little towns I’ve encountered.
Yes, there are lots of people there, but the streets lined with hanging flower pots, the old churches, the architecture, and yes, the castle, is likely what most of us think of when we think of an Irish village.
Before I get to the food, let’s talk about this castle. Welcome to the location for my one and only run during our trip. My husband got in two, but mid-week jet lag hit hard and I caught an extra hour of sleep the second morning.
The grounds of the castle are gorgeous. Green space in Ireland is nothing short of perfect. It just makes you want to spend the day at the park with friends and family.
Our B&B, the Carriglea House was a two minute walk to the beautiful castle. I always say I need one Full Irish Breakfast each trip so I decided to have it here. Good choice because it was some of the best sausage and white pudding I’ve had. I managed to miss getting a photo of the pancakes which were more like crepes. This was our favorite breakfast of the trip. Well, if you take scones out of the equation.
Our first impression of dining in Kilkenny was that most of the menus were exactly the same. There were also a lot of Italian and Mexican restaurants. Likely very good, we were just in the mood for Irish cuisine. However, we did end up with some delicious meals, stumbled upon the cutest little bakery and drank our fair share of Kilkenny and Smithwicks, both brewed in the city.
We ended up deciding on Matt the Millers for dinner which is located right on the water. Since the selection seemed limited from restaurant to restaurant I decided to stick with an old favorite and one that I hadn’t had until this point in the trip – Fish n Chips. I have to admit that I like the greasy, take-out version better than the restaurant version, but this hit the spot.
My husband had the roast special which screamed comfort – leg of lamb with vegetables and mash. The lamb was tender and the gravy the ideal match.
We had our first Kilkenny Irish Cream Ale at the recommendation of the waitress. I’d had this before in Dublin, but never made the connection that it was brewed here. For dessert I decided to branch out from the Irish coffee and went for a Bailey’s coffee instead. It had been a cool day in the city and this was exactly what I’d been craving.
The next day on our walk to see some of the attractions we found a bakery and a very interesting bread caught my eye. It’s called a Turnover Bread. I asked the clerk about it, but she didn’t give me quite the history lesson I was hoping for so the picture will have to do.
They also had these gorgeous dinner plate-size meringues. We went back later in the day for a chocolate jam cake roll and a petite four.
I’ll also throw in here that any trip to Europe requires a doner kebab stop for us. We picked them up for an early dinner one evening. Lamb for me, my favorite. My husband always goes for chicken.
Next up is the Smithwick’s Brewery tour. This one was a lot of fun. We didn’t get to see any production, but St. Francis Abbey is on the site so the tour was full of beer history. The kind of history that draws my husband and I to it in the first place, such as stories of monks brewing beer as a means of nourishment and hydration. The most interesting to me was that Smithwick was Catholic so the beer was brewed under the cover of a non-Catholic friend. The Smithwick name couldn’t go on the label for years.
We had a drink in the cellar bar, which is rumored to be haunted. Our tour guide, who was cute as could be, told us she works with guys who will never go in there at night.
She spent an exceptionally long time pouring our samples – the art of getting the head to rise above the glass without spilling over. Smithwick’s is good, but I have to say I prefer the nutty flavor of Kilkenny much better. I also love the picture of the Abbey on Kilkenny logo.
On our final morning, I got a great surprise. It just happened to be Thursday, the day the Farmers Market sets up outside the castle. I had an informative conversation with the owner of an organic farm. He had such a unique spread of produce including these Mirabelle Plums from France, cherries from Italy and my husband’s favorite, the Zespri Gold Kiwi.
He was so excited for me to try these after seeing them at a trade show and reading a case study on the company earlier in the year. I have to say, I like them even better than the green variety. They have such a sweet, mild flavor. We’ve heard they carry them at our Fresh Market here, but we haven’t come across them yet.
We snagged a bag of fruit for our train ride and balanced things out by getting some amazing fudge as well. This little truffle and fudge shop was amazing. We tried the Orange Chili Dark Chocolate Fudge, Cranberry Walnut Vanilla, Vanilla Cinnamon and the Ginger Lemon. I think these may be calling for a recreation in my kitchen.
So after our first impressions, I think we managed to find some great food (and drink) in Kilkenny.
I think we may have eaten a little too much this trip. Still not done sharing our finds – Belfast and Dublin to come!
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