County Kilkenny (Irish: Contae Chill Chainnigh) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region. It is named after the city of Kilkenny. Kilkenny County Council is the local authority for the county. At the 2022 census the population of the county was 103,685. The county was based on the historic Gaelic kingdom of Ossory (Osraighe), which was coterminous with the Diocese of Ossory.
: - Jerpoint Abbey is a fine Cistercian ruin in Thomastown. : - Kilkenny Castle is the imposing Norman Castle dominating Kilkenny. : - Dunmore Cave is 11 km north of Kilkenny. : - '''St Mary's Church in Gowran, 11 km east of Kilkenny, is 13th century. : - Kells Priory 15 km south of Kilkenny is a remarkable fortified monastery.
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Six trains a day run between Dublin Heuston and Waterford, via Kildare, Carlow, Bagenalstown, Kilkenny and Thomastown. Not all trains stop at the minor stations, so their service is two or three times a day. See Irish Rail for timetables, fares and online tickets.
JJ Kavanagh Bus 717 runs daily every two hours from Dublin Airport, Eden Quay and Heuston station to Kilkenny, Callan and Clonmel. One overnight and two daytime buses also stop at Naas, Athy and Castlecomer.
Expressway 4 runs every hour or two from Dublin Airport, Busáras and Heuston station, taking 2 hr 30 min via Carlow to Gowran racecourse and Thomastown and continuing to Waterford. It doesn't go through Kilkenny.
Bus Eireann 73 traverses the Midlands, twice M-Sa and once on Sunday, from Athlone to Clara, Tullamore, Mountmellick, Portlaoise, Stradbally, Carlow, Kilkenny, Thomastown, Ballyhale, Mullinavat and Waterford.
Slieve Bloom Coach 838 also runs twice M-Sa from Portlaoise to Castlecomer, Ballyragget and Kilkenny.
Kilkenny and Thomastown are on the main transport corridor to Waterford, so you can get between them on the trains from Dublin and buses from Athlone.
Other places have at most a couple of buses a day M-Sa, radiating from Kilkenny with no cross-country links. Many sights of interest are some way out in the countryside, without even those sparse bus services. So you need your own wheels. Distances are not great and the terrain is level so a bike will do, but a car gets you out of the rain.
The patron saint of taxi drivers, St Fiacre, is believed to have governed a monastery at Bennettsbridge before moving to France and giving his name to the fiacre carriage. His sanctity may have outpaced his contribution to transport, and the denizens of that town were sufficiently unimpressed that they named it instead after Benet, St Benedict.
