Kilkenny

Exit the cathedral churchyard through the south gate onto Dean Street and walk six minutes downhill — past the old gas works and a row of painted Georgian doors — to the timber gates of Ireland's oldest working brewery on Parliament Street. Skip the paid tour and walk the perimeter around to Bateman Quay, where the 13th-century ruins of St. Francis Abbey rise inside the brewery yard — the Cistercian monks who brewed the original Smithwick's ale are still buried under the malting floor. The contrast of medieval ruin against industrial chimney is the real story here, and entirely free from the river-side railings.

Tip: Shoot the abbey ruins from the Bateman Quay railing, not from Parliament Street — the Parliament Street angle puts a delivery loading bay in every frame. The Bateman Quay side gives you the full west gable lit from the river, and you are the only one there before noon.

Two doors south of the brewery gates, the navy-blue shopfront of Foodworks opens onto a narrow dining room of bentwood chairs and a counter stacked with traybakes. Run by a family who supply much of their own produce from a farm outside town, this is where Kilkenny locals come for a fast, real lunch before going back to work. Order the Killenure Dexter beef burger (€18) on a sourdough bun, or the Goatsbridge smoked trout salad (€16) using trout farmed twenty minutes down the road in Thomastown — both arrive in under ten minutes.

Tip: Arrive at 11:45, not 12:30 — they do not take lunch reservations and by 12:15 there is a 20-minute queue stretching past the brewery gates. The two-top high tables along the window turn over fastest if you walk in solo.

Continue south on Parliament Street and within 100 metres the cobbled forecourt of Rothe House appears on your left — an intact Tudor merchant townhouse complex of three buildings stitched together by two courtyards, the entire facade and cobbled yards visible from the footpath. Another 200 metres south, Parliament becomes High Street under the arched 18th-century Tholsel where the town councillors still meet upstairs. Step into the Butter Slip just past it — a 17th-century stone passageway barely wide enough for two people, originally lined with butter stalls and now the single most photographed medieval alley in Ireland — and emerge on St. Kieran's Street at Kyteler's Inn (1324), where Alice Kyteler stood accused as Ireland's first witch.

Tip: The Butter Slip lights up only between 12:30 and 13:30 when the sun is high enough to drop straight down the slot — any earlier or later and you get a black tunnel. Stand at the High Street end and shoot toward St. Kieran's Street for the postcard angle; the reverse direction has a fire escape in frame.

Walk south on High Street to where it opens into The Parade and the twin grey drum towers of Kilkenny Castle fill the entire view — the 20-hectare public grounds are free until dusk. Skip the €10 interior tour and instead loop the exterior anti-clockwise: through the formal rose garden behind the east wing, down the lime-tree avenue, across the lower meadow, and onto the Canal Walk path that follows the River Nore south past Lacken Weir before returning north under John's Bridge. The full circuit runs about 7 km on packed gravel and ends with the castle silhouetted against the river from the bridge — the single best photograph in Kilkenny, low sun behind your shoulder.

Tip: Shoot the castle from the rose-garden lawn at 17:30 in summer — low westering sun hits the south facade and turns the limestone gold for about fifteen minutes. The Parade-side morning angle every guidebook shows is flat and grey. Do not walk the Canal Walk past Lacken Weir after sunset — the path is unlit south of the lock and the only return is back the way you came.

Loop back from John's Bridge through The Parade — Rinuccini's basement door is directly opposite the castle's main gates, eight steps below street level. The Cantone family have run this room since 1989 and it is the only place in Kilkenny where you eat with the castle's curtain wall framed in the window. Order the Tagliatelle al Granchio (Dunmore East crab in white wine, chilli and parsley, €26) and the Bistecca alla Fiorentina for two (€72, dry-aged Tipperary beef) — both built on suppliers Antonio Cantone has used for thirty years.

Tip: Book at least 24 hours ahead and specifically request a window table on the castle side — only four exist and they go to whoever asks first; walk-ins after 19:30 are turned away even on a Tuesday. Pitfall warning: skip the row of 'Irish craft' shops along The Parade — most carry Chinese imports at triple markup. The Kilkenny Design Centre in the old castle stables across from Rinuccini is the only genuine local-maker shop on this street — Jerpoint Glass, Foxford wool and Nicholas Mosse pottery are all real Irish makers.