Kilkenny

[khiemtran]

On now to Kilkenny, once a major Norman merchant town.




The Normans built a castle at a key point by the Nore River, from which they could extract tolls from everyone who passed.



As you might expect the castle, whose previous owners included Richard "Strongbow" de Clare and William Marshall, has seen much change and renovation. These are not Norman windows, for example.



And these are not the Normans' cars in front!



This impressive gate is also an obvious late edition...



Not that it's needed. One side of the castle is now completely open.



But the view of the backyard is very impressive!



Most of the exterior walls and defences are now long gone. Here are some steps which once would have led up from the moat.



Kilkenny was divided between a walled-off Norman "uptown" and a larger "Irishtown" outside. Irish were not allowed to remain within the walls at night. This coat of arms at the old tollhouse makes it clear how things stood. "Here stands the castle of the royal lion, and beware if you aren't supposed to be here." The figure with the torch is supposed to represent the Norman burghers who lived inside, i.e. those privileged enough to be able to carry torches without being shot at sight.



Kilkenny takes its name from the Irish Cill Chainnigh, meaning Church of St Cannice (Cainnech). Here he is in a modern representation, carved from the famous Kilkenny black marble.



You'll see the same black marble everywhere around the old city, incidentally. It's quite common to also see white fossils inside it.



Near the site of the original church is St Cannice's Cathedral. Note the much older round tower, like the one in Glendalough. This is one of only two in Ireland that visitors can still climb.



Nearby is the famous Black Abbey, so named not because it was was black, but because it belonged to the Dominican order.



Inside, the illuminated windows are extraordinary.







The Black Abbey is An Mhainistir Dhubh in Irish. The word for "black" is dubh (lenited here along with mainistir because feminine nouns get lenited when combined with an).

Combined with linn, meaning "pool" (seen below), can you guess which other placename these form?



It's Dublin! Or at least the English version. The story goes that the bh sound was originally writted as a "b" with a dot on top and that the dot was lost in translation as it were, changing the pronunciation from "duvlin" to "dublin". I couldn't find a "b" with a dot, but here's a "t" with a dot, which would be spelled as "th" in modern Irish.



And meanwhile the Irish name is completely different - Baile Átha Cliath or "town of the hurdled ford"...

Meanwhile, at the sight of the old St Francis Abbey, is Ireland's oldest working brewery, where they make Smithwicks and Kilkenny. It has been operating since 1710.



And, as you might expect, there are plenty of places where you can sample the local product, including Kyteler's Inn, supposedly haunted, and which featured in one of Europe's first witchcraft trials.



So, that was Kilkenny. I haven't really done it justice, unfortunately, because I only had a couple of hours before it was back on the bus to that town with the hurdled ford (and back to work for me...)

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

"Town of the hurdled ford"--because there was a great hulking castle there, whose occupants were busy extracting tolls and shooting arrows at people who tried to stay in after dark. That's quite a hurdle, indeed.

The black marble is very cool.

... But are you sure those aren't Norman cars?

(Very magnificent stained glass, too.)

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

I don't think the Normans were very interested in (non-paying) tourism in those days. Although it was funny to see the point where the old city wall would have cut the high street from the the castle to the cathedral. Immediately on the Irishtown side were something like four pubs in close succession.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

So "Dublin" means "Blackpool"? Though I'm now confused, because shouldn't it be "linn dubh"?[*]

Though possible the word order got Anglicised at some point or perhaps the "adjective follows the noun" rule isn't so strict in Irish? Or there are arcane exceptions, the reasons for which are lost in the mists of time? Like the way that Welsh has words that mutate because in the past, another word would have preceded it and caused a mutation, but even though the preceding word is never used any more, its ghost still causes a mutation to this day. :)

[*]Which for Alan Garner fans is like the Welsh "Llyn du", which he gives as the derivation of Lindow (a lake in Cheshire) in either The Weirdstone or Moon of Gomrath

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Yes, adjectives usually follow the noun. Apparently there are other places in Ireland with the same name, so it can't have been that unusual.

Hmm. Unless the "black" actually is the noun. As in, I'll meet you at the "black of the pool"...

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

The story goes that the bh sound was originally writted as a "b" with a dot on top and that the dot was lost in translation as it were, changing the pronunciation from "duvlin" to "dublin".

Ah, that'll be after the American conquest of Ireland, centuries, ago, following which they forced the natives to make their placenames ASCII-compliant.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

That's pretty close, actually. Although the Americans were Scandinavians at the time.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

<nods> Before Leif Erikson conquered the continent, yes. (ObSF: Strata, probably my favourite Terry Pratchett book.)

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Lovely pics. I was in Kilkenny about 4 years ago with a friend who is restoring a farmhouse about an hour south of there. I really liked the town and the castle was fascinating.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's a shame I didn't get more time there. It does seem like a very nice place. I only really knew the name from the beer before this, and I had no idea what to expect.