Irish Journey, Day 3: Onward to Kilkenny and the Rock of Cashel
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By Brian McGowan
It’s a Friday, our third day “in country,” and we leave Dublin on a grey, wet but still warm September day, bound for the Irish countryside.
Our passage out of the city center is better than what faces the hordes of commuters streaming in for the last work day of the week. We are soon on the N7 heading southwest toward Kilkenny. Placenames beginning with “kil” are very common in Ireland, the Irish “cill” meaning “church.”
Kilkenny, our first stop, is from the Irish for “Church of Cainneach” (or Canice), a sixth century Irish saint and missionary. With Ireland’s vastly improved motorways, the 63-mile jaunt from Dublin doesn’t seem long at all. What is missed, of course, are the picturesque towns one would once pass through on a two-lane road, now viewed from a distance. Ah, progress!
Called The Marble City for the limestone so many of its buildings are constructed of, Kilkenny (population 26,000) is considered one of the best-preserved medieval towns in Ireland. Capital city of the county of the same name, it sits astride the River Nore, one of Ireland’s many scenic waterways.
The highlight here is Kilkenny Castle, stronghold since 1400 of the Butler family, Earls of Ormonde, a Norman clan that staunchly supported English rule. They often battled with other Norman clans, in particular the Fitzgeralds, who through intermarriage with the native Gaels, had become, so the saying goes, “more Irish than the Irish themselves.”
The castle dates from 1172, and is a wonder to walk through, though the original Norman design has been much altered over close to 900 years by attempts to keep it in current style, as in “Victorian.” The aptly-named “Long Gallery” boasts portraits of the Butlers over many centuries, as well as other beautiful works of art by various Irish artists.
The castle grounds are beautifully kept, though on the morning of our visit a steady rain keeps the hearty separated from the dry. It is Ireland, after all; rain, and a quick change in the weather, are both givens.
A short stroll from the castle toward the town brings us to the Nore, where a raft of ducks swim slowly by on a gentle current in the very shadow of the castle walls. But our bus awaits; time to head on.
There are few places in Ireland more majestic than our next destination, the Rock of Cashel. The quaint surrounding village is home to some 4,400 souls. Cashel, which stems from the Irish “caiseal,” meaning “stone ringfort,” sits in Ireland’s “Golden Vale,” County Tipperary’s vast plain, bounded on the south by the Galtee Mountains, the horizon in all other directions.
If Kilkenny Castle has been overly-Victorianized, the sturdy structures atop this magnificent limestone outcropping are a page right out of medieval days. And there have been fortresses here since time immemorial!
As we climb the steep path to the magnificent medieval ruins atop Cashel, the weather clears to a beautiful sea of puffy white clouds and blue sky. A strong wind at the top of the Rock catches more than a few visitors unaware and sends them scrambling a few steps to keep their balance.
Our expert local guide gives us the lowdown. On this 358-foot hill, sacred to the ancient Celts for millennia, St. Patrick in 450 converted Aengus, the King of Munster, used the example of the three-leafed shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity.
An abbey since 1101, the now-roofless cathedral is laid out in the form of a cross, all of it open to the weather and the whistling wind. Outside is the Cross of St. Patrick, a round tower from the days of Viking raids, and the red sandstone of Cormac’s Chapel, built in 1127 by Cormac McCarthy, bishop of Cashel. To stand in these spaces and close one’s eyes is to invite a walk through time.
At the end of a long but extremely rewarding day, we are back on the road and headed to Cork, which we’ll explore in another article.
Longtime Pleasantville resident Brian McGowan was born and raised in the Bronx and is a second-, third- and fifth-generation Irish-American/Canadian, as his immigrant ancestors followed several paths to the New World. Reach him at brian.m.mcgowan1952@gmail.com. He is the author of two books,“Thunder at Noon,” about the Battle of Waterloo, and “Love, Son John,” about World War II. Both are available at Amazon.com.
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