Rothe House

Lonely Planet review

The best surviving example of a 16th-century merchant's house in Ireland is Rothe House. The fine Tudor house was built around a series of courtyards and now houses a museum with a sparse collection of local artefacts, including a well-used Viking sword found nearby and a grinning head sculpted from a stone by a Celtic artist. The fine king-post roof of the 2nd floor is a meticulous and impressive reconstruction. A costume exhibit on the 1st floor is primarily good for mild laughs, with its cordon of oddly shaped mannequins looking very uncomfortable in period attire. A re-created medieval garden is due to open in 2008.

In the 1640s, the wealthy Rothe family played a part in the Confederation of Kilkenny, and Peter Rothe, son of the original builder, had all his property confiscated. His sister was able to reclaim it, but just before the Battle of the Boyne (1690) the family supported James II and so lost the house permanently. In 1850 a Confederation banner was discovered in the house. It's now in the National Museum, Dublin.

There's an excellent range of books on the region for sale at the entrance.