Carlow, Kilkenny, Castles, Cathedrals, and Consuls

Continued from Part 1…

Today we learnt that a huge number of the roads around and heading away from Dublin were built in the last 10 years, so according to the satnav in my car we spent most of the day driving through fields! Since it’s Helen’s birthday today, we started by visiting an Inglot shop (a high-end makeup brand) in Ireland’s largest shopping centre (that’s about a quarter of the size of the Trafford Centre for comparison).

After this we decided to go on a bit of a road trip heading South-West away from Dublin towards Kilkenny, we first stopped off at the town of Carlow which was lovely, probably a similar size to Northwich. First we visited Carlow Cathedral which had a good mix of classical and modern elements, for example around half of the stained glass windows were classical with biblical characters on them, and the other half were like modern geometric art.

One odd thing was just outside the cathedral itself, a number of signs advertising “Bob’s Your Uncle Lotto”! But the rest of the cathedral was beautiful, including a massive pipe organ at the back.

From here, we walked across town to Carlow Castle, of which all that was left was a single wall and a couple of towers. In the early 19th century, the castle was leased to a doctor who wanted to convert it in to a lunatic asylum, but in attempting to do so he accidentally blew up most of the castle itself, leaving only the West wall and adjoining towers. Maybe he should commit himself to a lunatic asylum!

We decided to hit the road before lunch and make the way down to Kilkenny itself to continue exploring Ireland, again the satnav was useless so we ended up taking a scenic route by accident, but got there in time for a quick lunch. We weren’t particularly hungry since we’d had a full-English (or full-Irish) for breakfast, so just had a slice of cake and a cup of tea before continuing with the sight-seeing.

First stop after a wander round town was Kilkenny Castle, a beautiful stately home that was fairly recently (within the last couple of decades) restored after being dilapidated for many years. We toured all round the inside, starting in the basement and working our way upwards. The views from every window in the castle were stunning, either looking out on to the grounds or the River Nore, with two cathedrals in the background!

Of all the different rooms and antiques in the castle, there was a series of tapestries depicting the life of Decius Mus that I found most interesting. These tell the story of the Roman Consul Decius Mus who sacrificed himself in battle against the Latins in 340 BC in order to achieve victory.

1. Decius Mus and Titus Manlius Leave to Fight the Latins – Decius holds an audience with a number of Senators about the upcoming battle.
2. The Consecration of Decius Mus – Decius is blessed by the High Priest Marcus Valerius the night before battle.
3. The Dismissal of the Lictors – Decius sends his attendants to Manlius to tell him that Decius is commending himself to death on behalf of Rome.
4. The Death of Decius – The battle itself, showing Decius falling back from his horse.
5. The Obsequies of Decius Mus – Decius’ funeral, showing the plunder won from the battle, prisoners being dragged across the front, and heads on spikes in the back.

The first and last tapestries were in one room, with the other three in another room. They were all massive, it would’ve been difficult to fit them all in a single room!

To give an idea of how big these tapestries are, this is a picture of one end of the gallery, two of the tapestries are on the right hand side here, they’re about 4 metres squared.

We walked back in to Kilkenny from here following a quick look at the local craft shops, and found a “Medieval Mile Museum” being advertised as a look back at Kilkenny over a number of centuries, so we stopped in to have a look around. It wasn’t what we expected though, and seemed to mostly be a museum full of tombstones from a single church. Great if you like tombstones/gravestones, but not much else there. We did however learn that back in the 1800’s, it was common to break open roofed vaults and fill them with clay to stop foul odours from the bodies below upsetting church-goers.

By this time it started to rain, so we didn’t want to spend too much more time walking around town. We walked up the hill to see Saint Mary’s Cathedral which was another beautiful building, another very well maintained cathedral with a lot of lovely stained glass throughout.

With the rain now coming down pretty hard, we decided to get back to the car and head back to the hotel. Kilkenny seemed to be littered with cathedrals and churches, with a second cathedral just 10 minutes walk from the first, but we decided we’d seen enough stained glass for the day and made our way back.

Arriving back at the hotel in the early evening, we decided to go to a local Italian and Bistro restaurant for Helen’s birthday meal called Maximilians in Blanchardstown. I had buffalo wings followed by duck, Helen had prawns followed by a crab lasagne which was interesting. The food was incredible, the best meal we’d both had out in quite some time, we’d definitely recommend the restaurant.

Thoroughly exhausted and full of amazing food, we finally retired back to the hotel, ready to sleep and continue the adventure in the morning. Happy birthday once again Helen!