County Kilkenny

County Kilkenny is a landlocked county in Ireland, in the province of Leinster. The county takes its name from the city of Kilkenny and has a population of around 104,000 people. It is located in the south-east of the island of and has borders with the counties of Laois to the north, Carlow & Wexford to the east, Waterford to the south and Tipperary to the west. The county seat and largest settlement is the city of Kilkenny housing more than a quarter of the county’s populace.

The River Nore flows through the city and county and the River Suir forms the border with County Waterford, while the River Barrow lies to the east – they are collectively known as the ‘three sisters’. Kilkenny’s tributaries and river network helps drain the land giving the county a highly fertile lower central plain. Most of the county is hilly of moderate elevation with uplands in the north-east, the north-west and the South of the county; the middle is lower by comparison. Brandon Hill is the highest point with an Elevation of 515 m (1,690 ft).

Weatherwise County Kilkenny is generally representative of wide river valleys in the region with low temperatures on cloudless nights. Overall, the county has a mild, but changeable, Oceanic climate with few extremes. Kilkenny is significant in that it records some of the highest summer and lowest winter temperatures in Ireland.

River Nore – ©Robert Linsdell CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Birding County Kilkenny

Fiddown Island is a 62.6-hectare Nature Reserve consisting of a long narrow island of marsh/woodland on the River Suir. It is covered in willow scrub and bordered by reed swamps – the only known site of its type in Ireland.

Fiddown Island – ©TXPeig CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Coan Bogs is a Natural Heritage Area that consists of two small areas of upland blanket bog located near Castlecomer in the townlands of Coan East and Smithstown. Bedrock geology for both areas is shale overlain locally by glacial till and blanket bog vegetation is well developed.

Other Special Areas of Conservation include Hugginstown Fen south-west of Ballyhale, The Loughans near Urlingford, Cullahill Mountain on the Castlecomer plateau near Johnstown, Spahill Hill and Clomantagh Hill which forms part of an escarpment which links the Slieve Ardagh Hills with the Castlecomer Plateau, Galmoy Fen north of Johnstown, Lower River Suir south of Thurles, the freshwater stretches of the Barrow/River Nore and Thomastown Quarry.

Around 6% of the county is wooded, although only a third of that is regarded as native, consisting of broadleaf mixed woodland; another third is non-native Scots pine and the rest commercial plantation. However, with small hedged fields in the agricultural plain there is scattered habitat with wildlife corridors, somewhat mitigated by grazing.