Kilkenny

Outing to Shankill Castle, and St Laserian’s Cathedral

2 July 2025

You can see a gallery of photos taken on the day at the bottom of this page. Our thanks goes to Johnny McLeer, Liz Hayes-McHugh and Irene Furlong who took these wonderful pictures. We hope it gives you a flavour of the great day we had. Enjoy.

The Failte Tourism retired members went to Kilkenny on Wednesday, 2 July 2025. It was a most enjoyable trip and the weather was good which always makes for more pleasant outings.

We arrived in Leighlinbridge around 11:30 where we visited The Lord Bagenal Inn for morning coffee and scones; and we have to say the scones were delicious and substantial which tided us over very well until our lunch in the late afternoon. This attractive village is the birthplace of at least 3 persons who achieved world fame in, respectively, the sciences, the Church and warfare.

We then travelled on to Old Leighlin Cathedral where we had a conducted tour with Dean Canon Máirt Hanley who gave a talk on the very interesting history attached to the Cathedral and the various historical religious and secular figures associated with the Cathedral and the surrounding area.

Old Leighlin dates to pre-Christian times where at one time the ancient Cathedral was one of the foremost monastic houses in Leinster, with no less than 1,500 monks in residence. In 630AD it was the location for a crucial church synod which determined the date of Easter, resolving what was then a major issue for the entire Celtic Church. You can read a bit about the Cathedral here

Our final tour of the day was to Shankill Castle – last but definitely not least. While a place of legend, mystery and stories for generations, it is currently the home and studio of Elizabeth Cope, artist and author. Elizabeth introduced us to the many-sided history of this famed house, gardens and estate and it has to be said that this talk by Elizabeth was one of the most interesting and entertaining tours undertaken by the association.

Everyone agreed that the talk was both unique and full of character. We felt it was a pity that we didn’t have more time to explore the castle on the day; but time was pressing. Home – Shankill Castle

Onwards then for lunch – we were all hungry by now. We headed for the Royal Oak, Bagenalstown along the scenic canal route back to Carlow Town. We had a lovely lunch in the Seven Oaks Hotel, Carlow, with plenty of time to share memories of our fruitful days of service to Irish tourism with our former colleagues.

After lunch we then headed back to Dublin and arrived around 8:00 pm – quite a bit later than anticipated, due to the level of interest by members at the tours during the day. Everyone felt it was more than worth it for such a great day.