Ireland/Irish > Black's guide to Killarney and the south of Ireland

44
DUBLIN TO CORK.
“Kilkenny coal” is wrought in this county as well as in
Queen’s County and Carlow. Carboniferous limestone, abound¬
ing in fossils, is found here, and also a group of Devonian rocks,
with Cyclopteris Hibemica and Anodon Jukesii.
Kilkenny City possesses an abundance of archaeological
remains. The population of the city in 1851 was 15,808; it
is situated on the Nore, here crossed by two bridges. Along
the hank of the river there is a public promenade, called the
Mall, which has been much improved of late. The manu¬
factures of the town, comprising blankets and coarse woollens,
are now unimportant.
“ The entrance to Kilkenny,” writes N. P. Willis, “ and the romantic view of
the castle of the Ormonds rising above the river, remind me strongly of one .of
the views of Warwick Castle. The first impression of the town from a cursory
glance is extremely fine; the cathedral of St. Canice, the castle, and other very
imposing structures, coming into almost every view, from the unevenness of the
ground, and the happily-chosen sites of all these edifices. Kilkenny is divided
into two parts, called Irish-town (the neighbourhood of the cathedral) and
English-town (that of the castle), the latter thrifty-looking and well-built, and
having an air of gentility, in which many of the second class of Irish towns are
rather deficient.”
Kilkenny Castle was built in 1195, on the site of an older
one erected by Earl Strongbow in 1172, and destroyed in the
following year by Donald O’Brien, king of Limerick.
“ The situation,” writes Dr. Ledwich, “ in a military view, was most eligible;
the ground was originally a conoid, the elliptical side abrupt and precipitous,
with the river running rapidly at its base; there the natural rampart was faced
with a wall of solid masonry, 40 feet high; the other parts were defended by
.bastions, court ins, towers, and outworks, and on the summit the castle was
erected.”
The castle is the residence of the Marquess of Ormonde.
The founder of this family, Theobald Walter, was one of the
retinue of King Henry II., and received from that monarch a
large grant of land in Ireland and the appointment as heredi¬
tary chief-butler of Ireland, from which office the family name
of Boteler, Le Botiller, or Butler, is derived. In 1319 James
Butler, third Earl of Ormonde, purchased the castle from the
Pembroke family, and with his descendants it has remained
until the present day. Kichard II. spent two weeks in it with
the Earl in 1399. In March 1650 Cromwell having invested
the city, opened his cannon upon the castle, and a breach was
effected, hut the besiegers were twice gallantly repulsed, and