Kilkenny Castle

Kilkenny Castle is a medieval fortress in Kilkenny, Ireland, built to control a fording point of the River Nore and the junction of several routeways, with the surviving stone structure completed in 1260 on the site of an earlier wooden fort dating from the twelfth century. Its original design featured four large circular corner towers around a massive ditch, of which three towers survive, and the castle was substantially remodeled in 1661 into a more comfortable chateau style residence. It served for centuries as the seat of the Butler family and as the capital of Confederate Ireland during the 1640s, and after passing into public ownership in 1967 for a nominal sum of fifty pounds, it is now managed by the Office of Public Works as a public historical site and venue for university ceremonies and exhibitions.