Kilkenny Castle

Notes:

The earliest surviving part of Kilkenny Castle is the Medieval stone foundations, which date to the 13th century. The original castle, most likely built of wood, was constructed in the 12th century.

The castle was rebuilt in the seventeenth century and altered/extended in the nineteenth century using Kilkenny limestone sourced from the townland of Bonnetsrath north of Kilkenny City. Exterior paving includes Carlow flags (probably nineteenth century) and Liscannor flags (recent). Local pale yellow dolomitic limestone dressings surround some slit-windows and entrances in the older portions of the castle exterior.

While the exterior of the castle is almost solely constructed of limestone from the locality, the interior showcases a range of Irish stone types as well as some English and continental varieties. The tiles in the entrance hall are alternating polished Portland Stone and Kilkenny Marble and the two fireplaces are of pinkish grey Cork limestone, known as Midleton Red in the Victorian stone trade. The nineteenth century cantilevered stairs is of Wicklow Granite (quarry not identified but possibly Ballyknockan). The kitchen corridor in the basement is paved with large black Carlow flagstones.

The Moorish staircase was added by Deane and Woodward in 1859-63 and the naturalistic carvings in Caen Stone are attributed to Charles William Harrison; the columns of the staircase are in Portland Stone. The Carrara Marble fireplace in the picture gallery (added in the early nineteenth century by William Robertson and altered by Deane and Woodward in the mid-nineteenth century) was designed by John Hungerford Pollen and the foliage carving is attributed to Charles William Harrison. The hammer-beam roof structure supported by carved Caen Stone corbels in the Picture Gallery are too by Harrison. The picture gallery was decorated by John Hungerford Pollen using a combination of motifs, interlace and gilding. Gilbert Cockburn was the building contractor during this period of alteration.

There are ornately carved coloured and white marble fireplaces, fabricated from imported stone (probably Italian), throughout the castle: a white marble with beige streaks in the Chinese Withdrawing Room and the Blue Bedroom, a soft mottled grey marble in the State Dining Room and the Drawing Room, a variegated creamy white marble in the Tapestry Room, and a white marble with blue-grey veining in the Chinese Bedroom (the Balcony Bedroom).

George and Ellen Butler, Lord and Lady of Ossory, were the last of the Butler lineage to reside at Kilkenny Castle in 1921. They lived above the great gate throughout the Civil War, during which the castle suffered significant damage. They moved to London in 1938 and the castle remained abandoned until 1967 when it was sold to the Kilkenny Castle Restoration Committee for £50. A restoration programme, under the care of the OPW, began in 1969 and completion of the first phase of restoration saw part of the castle being opened to the public for the first time in 1976. Further portions of the castle were restored and opened on a phased basis until restoration was complete in 2000.