Qualla: St Canice's Cathedral

St Canice's Cathedral: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Arie M. den toom, CC BY-SA 4.0. The city's name is hiding in plain sight. Kilkenny -- Cill Chainnigh in Irish -- means "Church of Canice," and St Canice's Cathedral is that church, or rather its latest incarnation. Christian worship has occupied this hilltop since the 6th century, when a monk named Cainnech founded a monastery here as a daughter house of Aghaboe Abbey. What stands today is a 13th-century Gothic cathedral, the second longest in Ireland after St Patrick's in Dublin. Beside it, a 100-foot round tower from the 9th century still rises like an exclamation mark -- and you can climb it.

Read more: St Canice's Cathedral on Qualla

Image: Arie M. den toom | CC BY-SA 4.0

St Canice's Cathedral: The Bishop Who Wrote Songs Against Sin

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Arie M. den Toom, CC BY-SA 4.0. The cathedral stands on what was once the western edge of Kilkenny, the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Ossory. The Synod of Rathbreasail in 1111 formally placed the episcopal see here, and the present building began rising in the 13th century. Its most colorful medieval figure...

Read more: St Canice's Cathedral on Qualla

Image: Arie M. den Toom | CC BY-SA 4.0

St Canice's Cathedral: Black Marble and Butler Tombs

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0. The cathedral is built of limestone in the Early English Gothic style, cruciform in plan, with a low central tower supported on columns of Kilkenny's distinctive black marble. Between the nave and each aisle, five clustered columns of the same dark stone carry high moulded arches...

Read more: St Canice's Cathedral on Qualla

Image: Andreas F. Borchert | CC BY-SA 4.0

St Canice's Cathedral: One of Three You Can Still Climb

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Twasonasummersmorn, CC BY-SA 4.0. The round tower is what catches your eye first. At 100 feet, this 9th-century structure predates the cathedral by several hundred years and is one of only three medieval round towers in Ireland that visitors can still ascend to the top. The other two are at Kildare and on Devenis...

Read more: St Canice's Cathedral on Qualla

Image: Twasonasummersmorn | CC BY-SA 4.0

St Canice's Cathedral: Irishtown's Anchor

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit A.-K. D., CC BY-SA 4.0. The area around the cathedral, known as Irishtown, is the oldest part of Kilkenny. This was where the Gaelic Irish population lived, separate from the Norman walled town -- a division that shaped the city's character for centuries. Today the cathedral serves the Church of Ireland...

Read more: St Canice's Cathedral on Qualla

Image: A.-K. D. | CC BY-SA 4.0