Clonacody House

One of Ireland’s best-preserved medieval walled towns, set in the heart of Tipperary’s thoroughbred horse country.

Fethard has more of its original town wall surviving than almost anywhere else in Ireland, over ninety per cent of it still standing, dating from a murage grant of 1292 issued to fund the town’s defences. Founded around 1200 by the Norman lord William de Braose, the town still has its medieval street pattern intact, with the walls, a fifteenth-century tholsel and the ruins of an Augustinian abbey all within easy walking distance of each other.

For a B&B in Fethard, that compact medieval core sits inside a landscape defined by horses. The town is surrounded by stud farms, including the world-famous Coolmore Stud, and Fethard Horse Country Experience, housed in the town hall, tells that story with an interactive museum that includes the skeleton of champion sire Sadler’s Wells.

Fethard sits almost exactly between Cashel and Clonmel, both about sixteen kilometres away by road, which makes it a genuinely central base for touring south Tipperary. The town also holds an annual Medieval Festival each June, with a parade through the historic streets to the walls at Valley Park.