Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/617358
169 STAY Kilkenny River Court Hotel The property is located on the River Nore overlooking Kilkenny Castle. Even if your room doesn't feature a castle view, you can pretend you're royalty as you dine in the hotel's riverside restaurant. rivercourthotel.com Pembroke Hotel This modern boutique property in the city center sits next to many of Kilkenny's best restaurants, pubs, and bookshops. kilkennypembrokehotel.com EAT AND DRINK Matt the Millers This is one of the best spots in Kilkenny to experience live music, to sample Irish fare, like Guinness stew or shepherd's pie, or to simply tip a pint. mattthemillers.com Campagne A high-end establishment in the city center, Campagne serves up dishes like rabbit and bacon pie, venison loin, and Scallop Royale, accompanied by seasonal produce. campagne.ie DO Kilkenny Castle Simply walking the grounds and snapping some selfies in front of the 12th-century exterior may be enough for many travelers, but enthusiasts of Victorian interiors will want to poke around inside, as the medieval structure was last updated during the Victorian era. kilkennycastle.ie Smithwick's Experience If you're not a fan of stouts (or crowds), you might skip the Guinness brewery in Dublin and instead sample and learn the history of the ales at Smithwick's. smithwicksexperience.com Smithwick's Experience; Top and middle, Kilkenny River Court Hotel ommendation, we next drive 20 minutes to the Woodstock Gar- dens & Arboretum, where we let the kids swing and slide at the playground and then amble for a long while among strange trees like the monkey puzzle, which looks like a surreal twist of prickly green pipe cleaners. At the end of our walk—although he is nearing exhaustion—my son invites himself to play soccer with a group of boys twice his age. He has no idea how to play, but they don't seem to mind him chasing them around, squeal- ing with delight and falling on the ground in imitation of their dives. When I tell him to try to kick the ball, he says, "But the other boy is playing with it." Behind this scene is a valley landscape so sprawl- ing and pretty that it looks like a painted backdrop. Our trip will be full of once-in- a-lifetime sights and experiences, from the Guinness Brewery to Kil- larney National Park. But it's these sorts of moments that we did not plan—that we could not plan—that I know will stay with me the longest. We drive back to Kilkenny the long way, not wanting to backtrack, and by the time we stop in the un- pronounceable village of Graiguena- managh for a "99" (a soft-serve ice cream cone with a bit of flaky chocolate bar stuck in it), the clouds threaten for a moment to finally overtake the tired sun. But then the sunlight breaks through again, in a cinematic burst of individual rays. "Wow," my wife says. "It looks almost messianic." When I look up the phenomenon later to find out what it's called ("crepuscular rays"), I learn that it is also, in fact, nicknamed "God rays." But we know it's not divine intervention at play. It's just one more lucky accident. photograph courtesy of Kilkenny River Court Hotel (top and middle), by Marc O'Sullivan (bottom)