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Waterford Crystal & Kilkenny City Small Group Tour
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From €195 per person
This is a proper full day out - a small group tour from Dublin that takes in two of Ireland’s most distinctive cities, stopping at one of the country’s most iconic craft traditions along the way.
You’re picked up at Nassau Street, Dublin 2, opposite The Kilkenny store, at 8am. Your driver guide is with you from the start, sharing stories about Ireland’s history and landscape as you travel through the countryside towards Waterford.
Your first stop is the House of Waterford Crystal, where you’ll watch master craftsmen transform red-hot molten crystal into elegant shapes by hand. It’s a fascinating process - the blowing, cutting, and shaping that has made Waterford Crystal famous for over two centuries. After the factory tour, there’s time to grab a light lunch in a Waterford café or browse the collection in the shop.
From Waterford you head to Kilkenny, the medieval capital of Ireland. A private walking tour takes you through the 13th-century castle, historic laneways, medieval townhouses, and past Smithwick’s, Ireland’s oldest brewery. Your guide will bring you to Kyteler’s Inn, Kilkenny’s famous pub, with its dark history as the site of Ireland’s only witch burning in 1324. Kilkenny Castle itself stands on a commanding height above the River Nore, its eight centuries of additions and alterations telling the story of changing power and changing times.
You board the bus back to Dublin at 4pm from Kilkenny, arriving back around 6pm.
For lunch in Waterford, walk away from the Visitor Centre toward John Street. Geoff’s café bar has been a Waterford institution since 1907 - proper food, a relaxed room, and the kind of pub where everyone from students to grandparents turns up on a Sunday. If you want to eat somewhere with river views, The Lighthouse on South Quay does seafood from the boats outside, but book ahead as the room is small.
The Viking Triangle is a five-minute walk from the Crystal Visitor Centre. Reginald’s Tower, the Medieval Museum, and the Bishop’s Palace sit within a hundred paces of each other - the Waterford Treasures trio is the best urban heritage trail in Ireland. The Bishop’s Palace holds the oldest piece of Waterford Crystal in the world, which puts the factory tour in a very different light. Even a quick look is worthwhile in the time before the Kilkenny leg.
On the Kilkenny walking tour, Kyteler’s Inn is the right place for one drink at the end - the medieval cellars are still there and the story of Dame Alice (accused of witchcraft in 1324, never found) is genuinely gripping. But for dinner or a longer evening if you extend the trip, Tynan’s Bridge House on John’s Bridge is what the locals call the best pint of stout in Kilkenny - tiled floor, mahogany bar, no music, no screens, just the room.
The walking tour covers the Medieval Mile from the castle northward, and the black limestone the whole town is built from - the fossil-flecked local stone that goes mirror-shiny under the streetlights after rain - is worth looking at closely. That’s why they call it the Marble City. Explore more of Waterford and Kilkenny on your own time.