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The Granary, on Merchants Quay, is a nineteenth-century warehouse that has recently been converted to hold the tourist office and, behind this, the city's chief visitor attraction - Waterford Treasures (daily: May & Sept 9.30am-6pm; June-Aug 9.30am-9pm; Oct-April 10am-5pm; GBP4/?5.08). This first-rate museum covers the history of the city from the Viking period to the present day through a variety of audio-visual presentations, and a superb array of Viking artefacts and early royal charters. Viking finds include elaborately carved antler combs, intricately fashioned bracelets, lathe-turned wooden bowls, weaponry, ceramics and leather footwear. The twelfth-century kite brooch is a work of breathtaking intricacy and there are gold and silver needles and pins of a similar age. There's plenty from the Anglo-Norman period too, including a mid-thirteenth-century yew bow stave - the only complete medieval bow in the British Isles; and a late fifteenth century cannon - the oldest in Ireland - which clearly shows the hooped construction typical of the time. Also on show is the city's magnificent collection of medieval, Tudor and Stuart royal charters. One of the highlights here is the extraordinary Great Charter Roll of 1372, Ireland's most important late medieval decorated manuscript, rich in illustrations of English monarchs, governors of Ireland, medieval mayors and the earliest known depiction of an Irish city. The collection is rich in content and it's well worth getting to grips with the audio guide in order to dip in and out of the areas you want to learn about in depth. Refreshingly, the interpretation on offer has a markedly contemporary and international perspective, debunking commonly held notions that the Vikings were little more than marauding hooligans and presenting a balanced picture of just how beneficial Waterford's relationship with the English Crown was
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