⛏️ The Saga of Kilkenny – Narrated by a Dwarf Master!

Hear ye, ye short-lived mortals! My name is not merely Kilkenny, I am Kilkenny, and I am ancient.

I have more experience than you can imagine in your tiny minds. I have been in this world for a whopping 325 million winters – yes, the good old Carboniferous period. I did not just come into being, I was born in the bosom of a shallow bay of the Iapetus Ocean, less than 5 degrees north of the equator! That was a different world, my friend, when the tectonic plates were shifting in a completely different way. I have wandered through the eternal, slow jolting of plate tectonics, so that today I can call Ireland my home. A beautiful, damp place for an old rock like me.

I dress in different shades of blue and gray, as befits a dignified dwarf ancestor. But I am not empty-headed: within me I carry the white bones of my ancestors – the fossilized shells and corals of the primordial oceans that created me. A treasure chest of Earth’s history!

For many, many centuries, my strength has been tested and appreciated in the quarries around Kilkenny, the place that gave me my name. The dwarves know what’s good! When humans polish me to a fine finish—a task worthy of a master craftsman!—I reveal my true brilliance: an elegant, deep blue hue. This color is so honorable and magnificent that I have been ennobled! I now bear the illustrious title: Irish Blue Limestone.

Where can you find me? Everywhere where strength and dignity are important! I am the cladding on facades, the solid floor slabs, the safe stairs, and the sturdy window sills.

But be warned: I am limestone, and like every honest dwarf, I have a weakness! I don’t like acids. If you expose me to the acidity of the weather, I too will eventually turn gray and show my weathered, old face. But even then, I am still stronger than any human mortar.