A few weeks ago, we decided to visit Kilkenny for the weekend. Just an hour and a half drive from Dublin, Kilkenny is a beautiful county (it’s the name of the county as well as the main town being named Kilkenny) and makes a great quick getaway from Dublin.

 Kilkenny is full of picturesque Irish countryside scenes: rolling green hills dotted with sheep, stone bridges crossing rivers, and cute towns and villages. As a county, it’s well known for its craft products, including traditional Irish pottery and other things. It’s also home to Ireland’s champion hurling team (there was actually a hurling match on the weekend we were there between Kilkenny and their rival county Tipperary, which we debated going to but decided against it as the weather was cold and rainy!) And the brewery for Smithwicks (a popular Irish beer — not quite as popular as Guinness but still fairly well known) is also in Kilkenny.

Kilkenny town is a cute medieval town to amble around, with winding cobblestone streets and alleyways (called slips), unique cafes, shops, and restaurants (not too many of the usual chains), and a handsome castle overlooking the river surrounded by beautiful grounds. The castle grounds also have a really nice playground, and we played there for a few minutes, but we had arrived fairly late in the afternoon and the playground closed shortly after. But on a sunny day and with longer time to spend, it would be a great place to bring a picnic and spend an afternoon. 

   
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
 
We drove around the countryside a little bit too and visited the cute town of Inistioge (Inish-teeg), which is famous for being where they filmed the mid-90s movie, Circle of Friends. Since this was one of my and my best friends’ favorite movies in middle school, I felt I had to visit the village where it was filmed. 😊 There’s not much there, but it’s picturesque with a beautiful bridge, and we grabbed a coffee at the Circle of Friends cafe. 

   
    
 
I’d say the highlight of the weekend, for the kids anyway, was just hanging out at the hotel we stayed at. The Newpark Hotel was the perfect choice for families. It’s got a warm indoor pool (Isaac absolutely loved swimming), a playground, fairy trail, and small farm out back, other nature trails to walk on, an indoor game room, and a kids club where kids can be dropped off for various activities. We were so surprised Isaac actually wanted to go one of the nights — there was a magic show and he really wanted to see it, so he went to the kids club for an hour by himself which he had never done before. Best of all, with so many kids in a hotel, you don’t feel bad about yours being noisy at mealtimes because everyone else’s kids are too! If it were up to Isaac, we would have stayed inside the hotel or on the grounds all weekend (but we wanted to make sure we got out a little bit to explore the town and countryside). All in all, it was a really nice little getaway to see a different part of Ireland!