Kilkenny, IE

Kilkenny's Michelin-starred destination, in a converted bar under the old railway arches on Gas House Lane, where chef Garrett Byrne cooks unfussy French food rooted in Irish produce. It is the city's serious dinner, but the early-bird and Sunday menus make the star surprisingly affordable.

The Design Centre's evening restaurant, set in the converted stables of the Castle Yard with the floodlit castle wall outside the window. The kitchen leans on small Kilkenny producers and the room is one of the prettiest fine-dining settings in town.

A Kilkenny institution facing the castle, run by the Cavaliere family for over thirty years, doing serious classical Italian rather than tourist red-sauce. The basement dining room is candlelit and the homemade pasta and seafood are the dishes to order.

A casual Parliament Street bistro built around the family farm a few miles outside town, so the pork and beef genuinely come from a known field. The room is bright, the service is friendly and the kitchen has a long-standing Michelin Bib Gourmand.

A small, very busy Thai-led street-food spot on Kieran Street doing the punchy, herb-heavy cooking that the rest of the city does not really attempt. The pad krapow and tom yum are the regulars' orders and the room turns over fast.

A long-running modern bistro inside the Zuni boutique hotel on Patrick Street, with a confident menu that drifts across Europe and a wine list to match. It is the polished mid-range dinner that fills the gap between Rinuccini and the gastropubs.

A daytime cafe and lunch spot tucked into the medieval Butter Slip off High Street, named for the 14th-century witch Petronella de Meath. The room is tiny, the soups and bakes are homemade and the location is as Kilkenny as it gets.

A French-trained patisserie on Patrick Street turning out properly laminated croissants, eclairs and seasonal entremets that would not look out of place in Paris. It is the city's morning pastry stop and the queue out the door at weekends tells the story.

A pretty all-day tearoom on High Street fitted out with mismatched vintage china, doing brunch, sandwiches and a proper afternoon tea with tiered stands. It is a reliable rainy-morning move and well set up for kids and visiting parents.

The 13th-century townhouse of Alice Kyteler, Ireland's first convicted witch, now a multi-level pub serving honest Irish food in stone-walled rooms with open fires. It is unashamedly touristy but the building is genuinely medieval and the kitchen is better than it has any right to be.

A Parliament Street gastropub with a long beer selection and a kitchen doing better-than-average pub plates, run by the same family for decades. The trad music sessions in the back snug are unannounced and some of the best in the city.

A restored Victorian-era general store and bar in Bennettsbridge, ten minutes south of the city, where the front room still sells groceries and the back is a buzzing gastropub. It is part of the Blackberry Cafe and Nicholas Mosse Pottery cluster that makes Bennettsbridge a half-day out.

A flat surfaced loop that links the fifty-acre Castle Park, the John's Bridge riverbank and the Lacken Walk on the far side of the Nore. It is the city's default daily walk and gives you the best castle, river and weir views without leaving the centre.

A roughly 10km waymarked walk along the Nore from the Lacken car park out to Bennettsbridge, passing ruined mills, water meadows and farmland the whole way. It is the area's signature hike and a satisfying half-day out, with a bus or taxi back if you don't want to retrace.

A Coillte-managed mixed woodland ten minutes' drive north of the city, with two waymarked loops through the grounds of the old Jenkinstown estate. It is one of the few places nearby where you can let a dog off the lead and the bluebells in May are excellent.

The hilltop ruins of Woodstock House above Inistioge, set in restored Victorian gardens and arboretum with the famous Monkey Puzzle Avenue. The walk up from the village is steep but the views over the Nore valley from the top are the best in the county.

A small Coillte amphitheatre and woodland loop about fifteen minutes' drive west of the city, with a 2km waymarked walk through mature beech and oak. It is the quietest of the local woods and a good rainy-afternoon shake-out.

An hour-long brewery tour in the original St Francis Abbey site on Parliament Street, where the monks first brewed ale in 1231 and Smithwick's red beer has been made ever since. The reconstructed brewing rooms are well done and you finish with a pint in the bar.

The city's 324-seat civic theatre on Parliament Street, programming touring drama, opera, live music and comedy through the year. It has been the cultural anchor of the centre since 1993 and the upstairs bar is a good pre-show stop.

A purpose-built 200-capacity music venue designed by David Collins Studio inside the Langton's Hotel complex on John Street, programming touring Irish and international acts. It is the main place to see a real gig in the city, with a strong bar set-up and a courtyard for between sets.

A long-standing Parliament Street pub with a 90-seat black-box theatre out the back, running trad sessions in the bar and fringe theatre, comedy and song-writer nights in the room behind. It is where the Kilkenny Arts Festival and Cat Laughs first cut their teeth.

The same medieval-church museum that anchors the city sites also works as a wet-afternoon entertainment, with audio guides, family trails and rotating exhibitions in the upper gallery. Good fallback if the weather turns and you have already done the castle.

A working pottery in a restored flour mill on the Nore at Bennettsbridge, ten minutes south of the city, where the spongeware that fills Kilkenny holiday cottages is still hand-decorated. The mill cafe and seconds room are the locals' draw as much as the pottery tour.

The contemporary gallery on John's Quay doubles as one of the better wet-afternoon stops in town, with free admission, a permanent Tony O'Malley collection and a busy programme of new Irish art. The cafe in the central courtyard is one of the prettiest in the city.

The 12th-century Butler stronghold that dominates the south end of town, set in fifty acres of parkland that locals treat as their back garden. The restored state rooms and Long Gallery are worth the timed ticket, but the grounds and rose garden are free and the real reason people keep coming back.

The 13th-century cathedral at the top of the Medieval Mile, paired with a 9th-century round tower that is one of only two in Ireland you can still climb. The 121 steep steps up the tower give the best rooftop view of the city you will get anywhere.

A Tudor merchant's house from 1594 that fans out through three buildings and two cobbled courtyards behind a plain Parliament Street frontage. The reconstructed 17th-century urban garden out the back is the only one of its kind in Ireland and easy to miss from the street.

A working 13th-century Dominican priory tucked off Abbey Street, with a vast jewel-coloured rose window that lights up the nave in late afternoon. It is still a parish church, free to enter, and one of the few places on the mile that feels lived-in rather than ticketed.

Built inside the deconsecrated St Mary's church and graveyard halfway down the Medieval Mile, this is the single best place to get the city's story straight before you wander. The collection of carved Renaissance tombs in the side chapel is genuinely extraordinary and largely overlooked.

Kilkenny's contemporary art gallery, now housed in the restored Evans Home on John's Quay after decades in the castle basement. It punches above its weight with a permanent Tony O'Malley collection and a strong rotation of Irish contemporary shows.

The roofless ruins of a 12th-century Cistercian abbey just outside Thomastown, famous for the carved cloister piers with their cast of medieval knights, bishops and dragons. The OPW guides here are excellent and bring the stones to life in a way few sites manage.

A working farm on the site of Newtown Jerpoint, a deserted 12th-century medieval town with the ruined church reputed to hold the tomb of St Nicholas. The two-hour walking tour with the farmer Joe O'Connell is the unusual heart of the place.

A picture-perfect Georgian village on the River Nore about 25 minutes south of the city, with a ten-arch stone bridge, a tree-lined square and a couple of pubs that have changed very little. It has stood in for period films more than once and is a worthy day-trip anchor.