The city is situated seventy-two miles south-west of Dublin, in the county of the same designation. The fortress is said to occupy the site of the ancient Irish castellum of the kings of Ossory. It is built on high ground above the town, and the present entrance is through a handsome gate-house of Caen stone which was brought up the River Nore in boats. The 2nd Duke of Ormond, who succeeded in 1688, spent £1,500 on its erection, but the carving has only been completed in later years. A massive wooden door gives admittance from the Parade. The castle seems formerly to have been a quadrangular building flanked by towers, having its entrance on the south side opposite the present gate-house. The building now forms three sides of a square, but in 1861 the foundations of the south curtain and the two bastions which protected the entrance were uncovered during alterations. Thus up to the beginning of the eighteenth century the castle practically had its back to the town, and it is therefore [Illustration: KILKENNY CASTLE.] likely that the architects of the Norman stronghold followed the ground plan of the old Irish fort, where King Donnchadh held his court during the greater part of the tenth century, and which existed long before the English town was built. In the northern side of the building is situated the hall, billiard room, ante-room, library, and drawing-room. The west wing is occupied by the private rooms of the family, while the picture gallery forms the eastern block. This wing was added by the 2nd Duke of Ormond. It is 120 feet long by 30 broad, and contains some valuable portraits by Vandyck, Holbein, Lely, Kneller, &c. The dining-room is part of the original building, and its walls measure some 15 feet in thickness. The tapestry in the castle is very handsome. Some of it is supposed to have been manufactured in Kilkenny, where Piers, Earl of Ormond, and his wife, Margaret FitzGerald, started a tapestry industry, some of the records of which are still preserved. A set of panels representing the “History of Deceus” is the most valuable tapestry in the castle. Of the three towers, that on the south being the largest is called “The Tower.” The small turret in the north-west angle is part of the oldest masonry in the castle, and is supposed to belong to the twelfth-century fortress. The Evidence Chamber contains an immense number of valuable historic documents and family records, among which are some deeds executed by Strongbow.