St. Mary's sits in the nave of a deconsecrated thirteenth-century church in the centre of Kilkenny city, and it holds the largest collection of medieval stone carvings in Ireland. The building itself is the exhibit: effigies of Norman lords, Hiberno-Romanesque stonework, and the Black Death-era tomb of Pier Butler, all in situ where they've been for centuries. A guided visit takes around 45 minutes and pairs well with a walk along the Medieval Mile to Kilkenny Castle afterwards.

Smithwick's has been brewed in Kilkenny since 1710, on a site the Franciscans had been using since the fourteenth century. The experience on Parliament Street tells that story across about an hour, taking you through the brewing process, the history of the friary, and the city's relationship with the red ale that most of the world still can't pronounce correctly. It ends with a tasting. Booking in advance is worth doing in summer; it sells out most days between June and August.

Kilkenny Castle has been standing above the River Nore since the twelfth century, and the Butler family held it for five hundred years before handing it over to the state in 1967 for the sum of fifty pounds. The guided tour covers the Victorian-era state rooms, the long gallery with its hammer-beam roof and Pre-Raphaelite paintings, and the original Norman foundations underneath. Allow an hour for the castle, then walk the grounds; the rose garden and the parkland down to the river are free to enter and often quieter than the main building.