History of the Inn

With a history dating back to 1263, Kytelers Inn, in the heart of the Mediaeval City of Kilkenny, combines a rich heritage with 21st century amenities and service.

Since it was first established by the notorious Dame Alice de Kyteler in the 13th. Century, the Inn has welcomed visitors and has provided them with good food and beverages. To-day its menu maintains the proud tradition of Irish cooking and from its taps flow local beers like Kilkenny and Smithwicks as well as Guinness and the Irish lager, Harp.

It is a place of merriment and celebration whose rafters continue to be raised by music and song, where weddings, birthdays and family events are celebrated and where the people of Kilkenny and their visitors gather for music, dance and conversation.

One of the oldest inns in Ireland, its first owner occupies a special place in the history of Kilkenny. The daughter of a Norman banker, Alice de Kyteler married four times and in the process amassed a considerable fortune. Local jealousies abounded and she was eventually accused of witchcraft and sentenced to be burned. Her excellent connections with local gentry ensured however that she was ‘spirited’ out of the country to England before the execution could take place.

Over the centuries which followed, the fortunes of Kytelers Inn ebbed and flowed. It was a thriving inn in good times and lay derelict in others. By the 20th century it was in dire need of repair and was substantially refurbished in the 1960s by a group of Kilkenny investors and re-opened as an Inn.

In 1986 Kytelers Inn was acquired by its present owner, Nicky Flynn, who set about reviving it as a place of good food and drink, entertainment and traditional Irish hospitality. She stripped away plaster to reveal the original stone walls and hired local stonemasons to restore the Mediaeval interior. The Upper Floor became ‘Neros’’, a highly popular night club, still fondly remembered by Kilkenny people as a focus of city night life in the Eighties and Nineties.

With the growing popularity of the Mediaeval City of Kilkenny as a visitor destination, Kytelers became a tourist attraction, welcoming people from all over the world, and it continues to do so to-day. Guests range from the curious who want to stroll through the interior and soak up its heritage and history to those who enjoy a pint of Kilkenny beer while chatting to local people and diners who want to sample Kytelers Inn cuisine featuring traditional dishes like Bacon and Cabbage and Irish stew.

The people of Kilkenny however remain the core of Kyteler’s Inn clientele, just as they have done since the 13th. century. They include shoppers and city workers who come to lunch or drop in for coffee or an after-work drink, those who socialise in the evenings, sports fans who watch all the big games on a series of tv screens and late night revellers who gather in the Top Bar, particularly on weekends.