Recreating the Table at Kilkenny Castle

In May, Greg, Miss J and I spent almost two weeks in Ireland. For the table this week, I'm following Greg's suggestion to recreate the table set at Kilkenny Castle. The stone castle (Caisleán Chill Chainnigh) was built by the Normans in 1195 on the site of a wooden fort which guarded access to the River Nore. The original stone castle, with four large circular corner towers and a massive ditch, was altered and added to several times in the past 800 years. In 1967, it was presented to the people of Kilkenny in return for a token payment of £50.

The table seems to be set in the style of the early Victorian period. My challenge was to set my dining room table in the same style – without buying anything new (or old as the case may be, lol!).  I'll be alternating photos of the castle's table with mine.

The castle's dining room is quite large; the expansive table was set with a crisp tablecloth. For some reason, napkins weren't included, although they were certainly in use in that time period. 

My table includes the errant napkins; I don't have a solid white cloth, so they and the tablecloth are a damask pattern. I've set the table for six, since that's all the plates I have in the china pattern I used. In hind sight, it would have been more like the original if I had added one or two leaves to the table.

The castle's place setting consisted of a dinner plate, soup bowl, and four crystal goblets. There were three forks, two spoons and three knives at each place. As far as I could tell, none of the flatware patterns matched. The Victorians apparently had a different type of implement for each dinner course served. Covered serving bowls were at each end of the table.

To replicate the feel of the place setting, I used the floral china Greg recently inherited that had belonged to his great-grandmother. The china set has no soup bowls, so I created the same effect by layering a slightly larger gold-rimmed dinner plate from different china under the plate. I used silver-plated flatware he also inherited in a pattern which went well with the china.

There were four sideboards in the castle's room, all of which carried several serving pieces in silver.

I only took decent pictures of two of them, but you can see a third sideboard in the first photo.

For mine, I set all the silver serving pieces we have on the buffet, except for a 3-tiered server which is way too modern a design, a Revere-style bowl, and the coffee/tea set you've seen. Why do I have so many silver serving pieces you ask? They're great for serving a crowd and they go with most china patterns, eliminating the need for having a large number of china serving pieces. But ours fit on only one piece of furniture!

There was a chest displaying pieces of china, which was in addition to the four sideboards. Did I mention the dining room was large?! In the mirror, you can see one of the crystal chandeliers and the plaster design on the ceiling.

Down the middle of the table was a long mirrored tray in three pieces called a plateau on which was set an epergne in the center, flanked by glass dishes on pedestals and two candelabra.

I don't have anything quite like a plateau, so I used an ornate silver tray which holds my mother's pedestal elegant glass plate. On either side are antique English candelabra.

At each place were four goblets. Unlike the flatware, they were all of the same pattern. I believe they are a hock wine glass, a wine glass, a low champagne glass and a cordial, the smallest of the four.

Most of my vintage/antique stemware is colored crystal/glass, so for clear stems I went with my wedding set – flute, wine and water. For the fourth I used my vintage cordial glasses, also seen in Late Spring with Toulouse.

I took more pictures of my table than of the castle's, because a) I had more time, b) I could get closer than the cordons at the castle allowed, and c) this time I knew I was going to do a post!

This china has a white background in the center, with an ivory rim bedecked with multi-colored flowers and a scroll pattern on the edge. Do you see the slight bulge where the rim meets the body? It is paired with subtle indentations on the gold edge.

A close-up of the mid-century silverplate forks, with scalloped, flowered handles.

Do you think I succeeded in re-creating Kilkenny Castle's table? I found it to be a fun challenge!

Thanks so much for visiting!


Table Resources
Dinner plates, bread plates, bowl, platter | W.H.Grindley 'Marjorie'
Flatware | Wm Rogers either 'Daybreak' or 'Elegant Lady'
Stemware | Waterford Marquis  'Hanover Gold'
Cordial glasses | Fostoria 'June'
Pedestal plate | New Martinsville 'Prelude'