I. An inland county of Ireland, in the province of Leinster, bordering on Queen's, Carlow, Wexford, Waterford, and Tipperary counties; area, 796 sq. m.; pop. in 1871, 109,302. The surface is generally level, but diversified with some hills, which rise to the altitude of 1,000 ft. The county is intersected by the river Nore, and bounded respectively E. and S. by the rivers Barrow and Suir. The soil is mostly a light fertile loam. Anthracite coal of inferior quality abounds. Fine black marble is quarried near the town of Kilkenny. Various stone piles of the pagan era, cromlechs, and cairns are found in this county, chiefly on the summits of hills. It is divided into ten baronies. II. A city, capital of the county, and a county in itself, situated on the river Nore, 63 m. S. W. of Dublin, and 30 m. N. by W. of Waterford; pop. in 1871, 15,609. It is well built, paved, lighted, and supplied with water. The principal buildings are the cathedral of St. Canice or Kenny, erected in the 12th century, and having a round tower 100 ft. high adjoining its S. transept; a Roman Catholic cathedral, two Episcopal parish churches, six Catholic chapels, two monasteries, a convent, several Presbyterian and Methodist places of worship, the ruins of a Franciscan monastery, prisons, workhouse, barracks, and a castle built by Strongbow. Its educational institutions include the Kilkenny college or grammar school, where Swift, Congreve, Farquhar, Bishop Berkeley, and other distinguished persons studied ; and St. Kyran's Roman Catholic seminary for the education of young men destined for the priesthood.

St. Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny.