Winter in Kilkenny
Once the festivities of Christmas and New Years are over, the realities of January set in. Combined with the often less-than-agreeable weather, the dark evenings, and a lack of disposable income, this can be a difficult time for a lot of people, myself included.
To combat this, I’ve decided that this January I wasn’t going to wallow in the house pining for the grand stretch. Instead, I was going to explore the beautiful city and county of Kilkenny looking for fun and free (or budget-friendly) places to visit to cheer up my days. With that, here are some of the things that I got up to in January.
Bennettsbridge
Now this isn’t strictly a January thing, but there is a fantastic walk called the Nore Valley Walk that extends from Kilkenny Castle all the way out to Bennettsbridge. It’s a 10km walk each way. I’m not the fittest person in the universe, but I’ve done this walk several times and it’s a very forgiving one. I suffered no ill effects apart from sore legs the following day! The walk alone is enough to make up for any sore legs though: it leads along the river, through wooded areas, and offers magical views of the landscape. It’s so lovely to let myself be totally immersed in nature for hours. It is spiritually and mentally restorative, and something that I look forward to doing each year as soon as a nice, sunny day comes along.
When you approach the end of the walk on the Bennettsbridge side, you are treated to a spectacular view of the eponymous bridge. At this point, your stomach might give a little jump as you know that in a few minutes you’ll be filling it with something delicious at the Crafted café. A cosy, homestyle institution, Crafted has a fabulous array of desserts, soups, sandwiches, and drinks.
This January, I cheated and drove out to Crafted instead of walking. However, the café and its offerings were just as fortifying on a cold and rainy day as if I had walked the distance to get there. My boyfriend and I sat at a lovely wooden table bathed in soft light and we watched the rain falling outside in sharp drops, each clutching our cups of tea tight and eminently glad that we were warm and dry inside. I had a scone with jam and cream, while he had an orange cupcake. We stayed there for ages enjoying the pleasant and friendly ambiance.
Once we finally braced ourselves to head back outside, I had the bright idea to head back over the bridge towards the Nicholas Mosse pottery studio. This is an unmissable experience if you are in Kilkenny. A beautiful stone mill gently exerting its presence over the river and fields in its vicinity, the Nicholas Mosse pottery studio is world famous. We drove the three minutes over to the studio and after a miserable minute walking from the car to the entrance, we were quickly enveloped in the magic of the studio.
The ground floor consists of an incredible display of Nicholas Mosse pottery: plates, cups, oven dishes, serving platters, saucers- you name it. Each piece is hand-crafted and painted on site. The patterns are classic and distinctive, from beautiful flowers and botanicals, to animals and pastoral scenes. Then, as you wander your way through the shop, you emerge into the studio viewing area where you can watch the skilled potters ‘throwing down’ on the wheel. We stood transfixed as we watched one work, his deft hands transforming a lump of clay into a graceful long-necked vase. It took mere minutes to create one, but we knew full well that we were observing the work of a man who has spent years honing his craft. It was almost hypnotising: the sound of the clay hitting the wheel, the hands forming it into shape, and the gravity defying spectacle as the clay was moulded up, up, up into shape. Then it was wired off and put onto a table with many other identical vases and a new lump of clay was thrown down, about to undergo its own transformation. We could have stayed watching for hours, so relaxing and meditative the process was.
We eventually wandered upstairs where there is a café that is worth a visit in its own right. There is also a shop selling local crafts and gifts, which was fun to spend time in. I got a coffee in the café and we sat overlooking the river. The women at the table next to us commented on the ‘stretch in the evening’ and it made me smile.
Spending the day in Bennettsbridge in a cosy café and having the opportunity to watch a skilled craftsman at work made me feel so happy and grateful to be able to enjoy Kilkenny regardless of the weather. We didn’t have to spend a fortune (all in all, we spent around €20 for the day) to have a lovely day exploring together.
