Explore Kilkenny

The Medieval Mile Museum occupies St Mary's Church, built around 1202 when the Normans settled Kilkenny and deconsecrated in 1957. Restored by Kilkenny County Council, it opened as a museum in 2017. Displays include the city's medieval civic records, replicas of Ossory high crosses, the Rothe family's 16th-century chantry chapel with carved tombs, and the graveyard.

Kilkenny Castle was built in 1260 to guard a crossing of the River Nore and later became the seat of the Butler family, Earls and Dukes of Ormonde, for almost six centuries. In 1967 the family sold it to the people of Kilkenny for a nominal sum. The Office of Public Works now shows its restored rooms and runs the surrounding parkland and rose garden.

Smithwick's Experience is a visitor centre on Parliament Street in the former St Francis Abbey Brewery, where Smithwick's ale was brewed from the 18th century until 2014. Franciscan friars brewed on the site before their abbey was dissolved during the Reformation. A guided tour covers the brewery's history and the brewing process.

Rothe House is a merchant's townhouse complex on Parliament Street, built by John Rothe Fitz-Piers between 1594 and 1610. Three stone houses linked by cobbled courtyards lead back to a reconstructed 17th-century garden and orchard, with a stretch of the medieval city wall. The Kilkenny Archaeological Society owns it and shows period rooms and local artefacts.

St Canice's Cathedral is a Church of Ireland cathedral in Kilkenny, built in the 13th century in the Early Gothic style on the site of a monastery said to have been founded by St Canice in the sixth century. Inside are 16th-century tomb monuments and stained glass. Beside it stands a 30-metre round tower from the 9th century that visitors can climb by internal ladders.