National Craft Gallery & Kilkenny Design Centre

Contemporary Irish crafts are showcased at this imaginative gallery in the former castle stables that also house the shops of the Kilkenny Design Centre. Ceramics dominate, but exhibits often feature furniture, jewellery and weaving from the members of the Crafts Council of Ireland. There are regular classes in pottery and jewellery making.

Behind the complex, look for the walkway that extends into the beautiful Butler House gardens of, with an unusual water feature constructed from remnants of the British-built Nelson Column, blown up by nationalists in Dublin around a century ago.