The house
Rothe House is the only complete burgage plot left in Ireland – a single merchant’s holding that runs, unbroken, from the Parliament Street frontage back to the line of the medieval town wall. John Rothe Fitz-Piers built it in stages between 1594 and 1610, and rather than pile extensions onto one house he put up three, linked by cobbled courtyards, to make room for a household that eventually ran to twelve children. Each house carries its own date stone: 1594, 1604, 1610.
If you only have an hour, take the guided tour rather than walking it yourself. It costs €1.50 more than the self-guided ticket and runs 60 minutes instead of 45, but the rooms don’t explain themselves. The oriel windows, the spiral stairs, the rare king-post roof and the plasterwork all come with a merchant-family story attached, and a guide is the difference between looking at old rooms and understanding them.
History
John Rothe married Rose Archer, joining two of the city’s leading trading families. The good years didn’t last. The Rothes backed the Confederation of Kilkenny in the 1640s, and after Cromwell the property was confiscated. Over the following three centuries the houses came down in the world by turns – a brew house, an iron foundry, a public house, tenement lodgings – until the Kilkenny Archaeological Society bought the site in 1962 and spent decades pulling it back from dereliction.
The museum
The museum, in the third house (built 1610), holds around 2,500 objects, most of them dug up around the city. The oddest is the skull of a giant Irish deer, an animal gone for more than 10,000 years. There’s also a 6th-century Ogham stone, the blunderbuss of the highwayman Captain James Freney, a 17th-century refectory table, and a self-portrait of the painter Sir John Lavery with his wife Hazel. One thing that is not here, despite what some guides imply: the Ros Tapestry panels are displayed at Kilkenny Castle, not at Rothe House.
Rothe House is also the main family-history research centre for County Kilkenny, holding over 200,000 parish and civil records with a professional genealogist on site – worth knowing if you’ve Kilkenny ancestry to trace.
The garden
The half-acre walled garden runs the length of the plot to the old city wall. It was excavated in 2008 and replanted with heritage vegetables, herbs and fruit trees, with an orchard, a dovecote and a well. A few ducks live there. Braille panels on the walls carry the information for visually impaired visitors. Garden tours run by pre-booking only, so ring ahead if the garden is the main reason you’re coming.
Getting there
Rothe House is halfway along the Medieval Mile on Parliament Street – a five-minute walk from St Canice’s Cathedral, ten minutes from Kilkenny Castle, directly opposite the Smithwick’s Experience. The nearest car parks are Market Yard and Market Cross, both charged by the hour; coaches park free at St Canice’s Place. City buses KK1, KK2 and 838 stop on Parliament Street, and McDonagh Station is a short walk or taxi ride away.
The courtyards and garden are wheelchair accessible, but the cobbles and interior staircases are hard going – call ahead on 056 772 2893 if you need assistance. Guide and therapy dogs are welcome; other pets are not.
If you’re just passing, the Merchant Shop on Parliament Street is open without a ticket, and stocks Irish books, crafts and souvenirs – the one part of Rothe House you can browse without paying in.