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Small museum of Irish country life.
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The round tower was built in 1495, the rest is a modern mock-castle mansion. Much of the place is now artisan shops selling their own porcelain and knitwear. Castle tours are available.
Impressive abbey founded for the Benedictines in 1168 but affiliated to the Cistercians from 1182 and extended 1400-1450. Much of what you see now is a 20th-century reconstruction of the abbey church, which in 1975 became the Roman Catholic parish church. It's long been a pilgrimage site, as it claims to hold fragments of the "True Cross." The first was probably bestowed by the King of Limerick at the 1182 Cistercian launch; his family had received it from Pope Pascal II. (Other accounts credit Queen Isabella, widow of King John, in 1233, but by then she was out of favour and busted to being a mere Countess.) In the 15th century the fragment was set in the silver Ormond Reliquary. The abbey was ruined at the Reformation but the relic remained, and continued to draw pilgrims; it was a money-spinner for the village. At the 1975 re-opening, the Vatican provided a second fragment, set in a golden Cross of Jerusalem. This was stolen in 2011 but the police recovered it; perhaps it was too recognisable to be sold, and no arrests were made. The abbey is in a picturesque village with a medieval river bridge.
This track has National Hunt (jumps) races Nov-March. It's an oval right-handed, 2 km circuit with 6 flights of hurdles and 7 steeplechase fences then a steep uphill finish; and races make two circuits. On race days there's a free minibus shuttle from the railway station.
Racing every Saturday from 7:30PM.
Displaying memorabilia of the GAA and Gaelic games, but it's chiefly a merchandising outlet for club colours. It also houses the Tourist Information Centre.
The original cathedral of the diocese was on the Rock of Cashel, but that was grabbed by the Protestants at the Reformation. As elsewhere, the Catholics weren't allowed to build their own churches until the Penal Laws were relaxed. This Italianate Romanesque cathedral was built over earlier chapels and completed in 1879, with an impressive rose window and baptistry, and white marble altar. The high-domed tabernacle is by Giacomo della Porta, a pupil of Michelangelo; it came from the Gesu Church in Rome. The cathedral's eight bells can be dinged by hammer but not change-rung, for fear of bringing the campanile crashing down.