Kilkenny to Wexford (Ireland’s Ancient East continued)

Leaving Tipperary, Miriam and I continue our journey to Kilkenny. We head to Goresbridge which is a pretty little village and thankfully the local Spar has a toilet we can use!! We walk a part of the Barrow Way, which is a lengthy walk along the river. We cross the bridge and the sun is out for the walk along the riverside.

We do a 5km stretch as far as Ballyteigelea

We’re well prepared with leftovers so have a picnic by the bridge and then carry on toward the city.

Going through Gowran we stop for a look at St Mary’s church

The sky threatens rain so we don’t have long before a shower comes. I run to the car while Miriam saunters along delighted with another excuse to wear her cape!!

We’re staying at Fanad house which is an ideal location for exploring Kilkenny. It’s a few minutes walk along the side of the castle grounds to the main parade and the room is very nice for a reasonable price. I would definitely recommend it for future visits.

As we have a window seat we notice Ryan’s bar across the street. It looks like a proper pub that doesn’t serve food (one of my pet peeves is going to a pub for a drink and everyone is eating or there is just a stench of food when you just want a drink.. so annoying) ok rant over, Ryan’s is a great spot – it usually has music but of course that’s not allowed yet. We get a couple of gin and tonics and it’s nice to feel like we’re “out out”. We get chatting to Arthur who runs the bar, meet an interesting mannequin and even get our photo taken for the Facebook page!

Next morning we decide to go for a walk before breakfast. We need to build up our appetites so we wander around the castle grounds.

We have some additional peeps joining us for our journey today. Miriam’s sister Grace and her youngest daughter Emma have been on their holidays in Kilkenny for the past week and are joining us for the day as we head toward Wexford… but there are some adventures to be had ahead of that. We load up the car (looks like they were away for a month!!!) and off we go…..

Our first official stop is Kilfane Glen and Waterfall. We walk around the beautiful gardens which were untouched for 200 years and are an example of a romantic era garden.

There’s even a little cottage orné that has been restored and as we come upon it from the woodland walk it feels like it could be the home of Hansel & Gretel!

Time to move on and we head for Duiske abbey which is in Graiguenamanagh or as I like to call it Gu-gen-a-bar-ah!! As we approach the town we notice a statue of a monk and then we see another one further into the town and then another as we leave (unwittingly having passed the abbey). Grace as quick as lightening is onto the google and finds out there are actually 12 statues of the monks and they are positioned all around the village. We decide there and then we will find them all…. first we need to turn around and go back into town!!

Monk No.1

We park the car and head back up the road to check out our first monk. He appears to be a baker 👨‍🍳

Monk No.2

We quickly get to monk no.2 on our way to the centre of town.

So here’s the story with the monks : In 1204 a group of twelve monks made their way along the river Barrow (where Miriam and I walked yesterday) and they established Duiske abbey. A number of years back local Tidy Towns committee commissioned 12 life size granite statues of the monks depicting them working in the community and placed them all around the town. They hope it will bring tourists and encourage people to learn about the heritage of the town. It has certainly worked on us.

Monk No.3

Monk No.4

We’re a few monks in so we decide it’s lunchtime or at least coffee & tea and maybe cake time. We sit down outside the Duiske cafe and are looking across at this magnificent display of flower baskets. On first look the cafe doesn’t look up to much but we were so delightfully surprised. The lady who served us was extremely pleasant and helpful and everything we ordered was tasty and very inexpensive.

After the spot of sustenance we head to see what we actually came to Graiguenamanagh for – Duiske Abbey. Another highlight of Irelands ancient east, Duiske abbey was founded in 1204 by William Marshal [this guy Marshall is a key figure who built most of the castles you see today including Kilkenny that we just visited this morning – this is all pieced together later when we get to Ferns] and is one of the largest Cistercian buildings fully standing today. Unfortunately it wasn’t open when we were there but we walked around it and checked out the graveyard which had some high crosses.

Sure we’re too busy to spend any more time here, we have monks to find… we decide to enlist the help of some locals as we’re running out of monks in town and need to figure out where the rest are… our next fella is outside the bank and we decide we’ll jazz up the selfies… this one, as you can see we decided to opt for hoods up with a cap for the monk!

Monk No.5

Monk No.6

Having interrupted some local ladies sitting outside having a coffee, I get invaluable information as to the whereabouts of the remaining monks… it’s hard to keep track of them all though. They did tell us that there’s one up the hill at the back of the abbey on the way to the Silaire wood loop walk… we are on it…. and 20 minutes later we are still walking… and enjoying a beautiful view back down to the town.

Grace has forged ahead at speed and we’re starting to worry that we’ll have to retrace our steps and get the car when she shouts that she spots a monk up ahead…

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Monk No.7

We spot monk no.7 from across the river so we take a snap… alas no selfie it’s too far and we still have 5 monks to find…

Monk No.8

The sunshine has come out again and we continue a delightful walk along the river. Emma and I decide to run ahead in the hope of finding our next monk and just around a slight bend we spot him. We realise he probably doesn’t know there’s a pandemic and decide he should be wearing a mask.

And look what else we find… a castle – Tinnahinch Castle from 1620 (seriously they’re everywhere!!)

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Monk No.9

It’s getting harder to find the remaining monks. We’ve been told they are on each of the roads leading into the village so we decide to head for the car, via an ice cream shop!

Monk No.10

The excitement is fierce as we drive one of the roads (who knows which one at this point) and find our next monk

Monk No.11

The last two are the hardest to find but after driving in and out multiple main roads we spot this fella collecting the sheaves

Monk No.12

He was the toughest to find but we wouldn’t give up… we just followed our noses and low and behold before our eyes he appeared in front of us. The excitement is fierce and there’s a fair bit of whooping from the car! We’re delighted with ourselves and the extra effort was worth it… he definitely deserved a big kiss!!

Much later than anticipated we leave this cute little village and head for Wexford, a relaxing evening of Thai food, wine, chat and craic lies ahead.

Next morning after a bit of a lie in, we visit the refurbished Ballycarney post office. It was a post office from 1891 and a local man Sean Lacey has done a fabulous job restoring it.

Next we head to the Ballycadden Windfarm walk which provides some beautiful views of the countryside

Our weeks holiday ends with a Sunday roast courtesy of Miriam’s Mam and it is delicious. She’s definitely spoiling us as she’s made my favourite apple and blackberry crumble with fresh cream. What a way to finish the week