- City
- Kilkenny
- Founded
- 1710
- Founder
- John Smithwick
- Water
- The Nore
On the banks of the River Nore in Kilkenny stand the ruins of St. Francis Abbey, a Franciscan friary founded in the 13th century. It was among these medieval walls that brewing took hold, and the house traces its roots to 1710, when John Smithwick took a stake in a small operation working the abbey grounds.
For three centuries the abbey's roofless tower kept watch over the brewery yard, making St. Francis Abbey one of the most atmospheric industrial sites in Ireland — a working brewery wrapped around a piece of the Middle Ages.
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