St Colmans Well

Explorer Tom Saint Coleman's Well in Jenkinstown was built by a guy who clearly thought he was doing a favour for the saint, but really just made a nice little hole in the ground. It’s got that classic 'I did my best' energy to it, which is more than most buildings can say about themselves honestly. If anyone asks, Tom sent you.

Explorer Tom Jenkinstown Park has doors in its old estate walls, deer near the car park and bluebells that turn the beech wood into a springtime show-off. Ten kilometres north of Kilkenny city, its marked loops give you a proper woodland outing without asking you to disappear into the wild. The doors are real; any invitation from a talking deer is entirely my invention. Coillte says the wood once belonged to the Bryan Bellew estate. Poet Thomas Moore wrote “The Last Rose of Summer” while staying at Jenkinstown House, and a walled lawn remembers the connection. The operator also points out an unusual Chinese necklace poplar from the nineteenth-century planting, a deer enclosure and an old threshing mill building near the main car park. There is more here than a pretty carpet of flowers. Two waymarked loops let you choose your pace. The shorter Walled Garden route passes St Colman's Well and those doors in the walls, while the longer Jenkinstown Loop circles more of the wood and reaches viewpoints over the surrounding countryside. I like to think the old estate walls are still trying to keep all the bluebells to themselves, but the paths have rather spoiled that plan. Begin at the car park and follow the marked route that suits your group; the forest operator provides a trail map. Spring brings the famous bluebells, but the trees, estate traces and easy walking make sense outside flowering season too. Give the deer their space, leave plants where they grow, and see how many different stories one modest Kilkenny wood can hold.

Explorer Tom Jenkinstown House is this gorgeous chapel that looks like it wandered in from a Gothic novel and got lost in the country. Two lads in the pub swore they bet their last pint on whether the spire would actually point at heaven or just the next field, and I’m still waiting for the winner.

Explorer Tom Crossing New Dinin Bridge without waving to it triggers a curse that only affects people who don’t wave. Locals swear you’ll trip over your own feet if you’re rude to the limestone arches. Best seen with a friendly hello

Explorer Tom Trinity Well in County Kilkenny is bubbling up with secret pride over one specific potato it grew last summer. It thinks that spud was a masterpiece, even though nobody ate it or even noticed the green shoots. Ideal for a moody photo you'll pretend wasn't posed.

Explorer Tom Foulksrath Castle ended up in the wrong place entirely, probably a postal error from the Middle Ages. It projects forward from its bawn like it’s trying to escape the moat. Go with someone who loves old stuff and watch them melt.

Explorer Tom Legend says there was a matchmaker working in this bawn at Foulksrath who paired off knights with ladies based on how well they could juggle apples. The walls are still thick enough to hide all the love letters and secret trysts that happened behind them back in the day. Best enjoyed with a bag of chips and no plans.

Explorer Tom Cave of Dunmore has an escape plan that involves crawling through a hole so small only a very determined badger could fit through it, which is honestly a bit desperate for a cave to be planning on. It’s just waiting for the right moment to bolt. Ideal place to rehearse an excuse for being late.

Explorer Tom Dunmore Cave is short enough on a map for me to boast I could cross it in a hurry, then deep enough to prove me wrong. Its passages total about a quarter mile and descend roughly 46 metres below Kilkenny ground. Inside stands the Market Cross, a limestone column more than 5.8 metres high. The cave is also an important archaeological site, with records of violence in the tenth century; the people involved deserve a sober account from the guides, not a joke from me. Protected as a national monument since 1944, it began welcoming guided visitors in the 1960s. Check today's opening, tour and step access before coming, and stay on the visitor route. Look at the formations without touching them, however tempting the shapes. Stone has been working here for ages and needs no help from my fingers.

Explorer Tom Graveyard in Threecastles would spend its lotto win on a new fence because the current one is letting the cows in and they are very rude about the whole thing. It’s a nightmare for them. Have a chat with it, nobody's watching.

Explorer Tom Turkey Oak in County Kilkenny holds a fake world record for being the most confused tree in Ireland, having been misidentified as something else for the last century. It’s not even angry about it, just thoroughly unimpressed by the whole thing. Hang around long enough and you'll hear a story from a local.