# A Reader's Central Kentucky: Bardstown to Shaker Village A 3-day, ~160-mile Southern road trip from Bardstown, KY. It chains Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers. - **Days:** 3 - **Distance:** ~160 mi - **Starts in:** Bardstown, KY - **Themes:** History, Food, Culture - **Routes chained:** [Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/bourbon-68) Sent in by a reader who came home with a Shaker Village membership: three unhurried days of Civil War museums, an 1845 inn, a Main Street café's Pig Mac and 3,000 Shaker acres, with hospitality so steady that the trip's worst review was 'just fine, thanks.' It's the Bourbon route with the distilleries left optional — and a pulled-pork stop on the drive home. ## Why this itinerary works Starting in Bardstown, KY, this 3-day itinerary connects Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers. It suits travellers interested in barbecue, boudin, oysters & tamales; art towns, writers & folkways; battlefields, the movement & the past. The day-by-day bases let you split roughly 160 miles into a sequence of visits rather than trying to cover every linked route end to end. Use the daily highlights to decide which places deserve your longest stops. ## Day by day ### Day 1: Bardstown's Museum Row Give the National Civil War Museum on Museum Row the whole afternoon — one ticket covers all four museums and dozens of historic buildings, and it's good for two days, so come back in the morning. The used bookstore is a trip in itself. Dinner and a room at the Old Talbott Tavern, bullet holes upstairs. Highlights to consider: - **Bardstown** (Bardstown) — Bourbon Capital of the World: Old Talbott Tavern (1779) keeps its Jesse James bullet holes upstairs; My Old Kentucky Home keeps Stephen Foster's complicated anthem; the Oscar Getz whiskey museum keeps everything else. [Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/bourbon-68) - **Bardstown Museum Row** (Bardstown) — One ticket, four museums and dozens of historic structures on East Broadway: the National Civil War Battles of the Western Theater Museum (Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi's war, with a grade-A artifact collection), the only museum in America devoted to the war's women, a street of relocated pioneer log buildings — plus a used bookstore that is a detour in itself. A reader reports the ticket is good for two days; you'll want both. [Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/bourbon-68) - **Maker's Mark** (Loretto) — The prettiest distillery in the state, on a creek in the knobs: dip your own red-wax bottle, find the Chihuly glass ceiling in the aging cellar. Star Hill Farm is worth the winding miles. [Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/bourbon-68) - **Abbey of Gethsemani** (Trappist) — Thomas Merton's Trappist monastery (he's buried under a plain white cross). Visitors welcome to the silence; the gift shop's bourbon fudge and fruitcake fund the contemplation. [Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/bourbon-68) ### Day 2: Bardstown → Perryville → Harrodsburg US 150 east through Springfield to Perryville's unchanged battlefield, then ten miles up US 68 to Harrodsburg: check into the Beaumont Inn (1845 — prime 19th-century American architecture inside and out), lunch on the Pig Mac at Blackbird Cafe, and the inn's yellow-legged fried chicken for supper. Highlights to consider: - **Beaumont Inn** (Harrodsburg) — Yellow-legged fried chicken and Henry Bain sauce at a Beard 'America's Classic' — an 1845 Greek Revival girls' college that is 19th-century American architecture in prime condition, inside and out — in Kentucky's oldest permanent settlement (1774), run by the same family five generations. [Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/bourbon-68) - **Blackbird Cafe** (Harrodsburg) — Bakery-café in the 1865 Dedman's Drugstore on Main Street — sandwiches, soups and a pastry case, and the Pig Mac, which one reader drove home still talking about. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays. [Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/bourbon-68) - **Bardstown** (Bardstown) — Bourbon Capital of the World: Old Talbott Tavern (1779) keeps its Jesse James bullet holes upstairs; My Old Kentucky Home keeps Stephen Foster's complicated anthem; the Oscar Getz whiskey museum keeps everything else. [Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/bourbon-68) - **Perryville Battlefield** (Perryville) — October 8, 1862: Kentucky's great battle, fought in a drought over water, on rolling land so unchanged the markers barely need maps. The Confederacy never seriously threatened Kentucky again. [Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/bourbon-68) - **Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill** (Harrodsburg) — Thirty-four original buildings from the celibate utopians whose craftsmanship outlived them (celibacy will do that), on 3,000 acres of trails running down to the Kentucky River. Sleep in the dormitories, order the Trustees' Table fried chicken and the Shaker lemon pie (it will make you forget meringue), hear the spirituals. The quietest place in this entire atlas — and, one reader reports, possibly the last place in America where people still say 'you're welcome.' [Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/bourbon-68) ### Day 3: Shaker Village → home Seven miles up US 68 to Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill: the 34 buildings, a trail or two of the 3,000 acres, then the Trustees' Table for fried chicken and Shaker lemon pie (it will make you forget meringue). Heading north, stop in Walton at Kelly Q's & Whipper's Dairy for pulled pork and a cone under proper country music. Highlights to consider: - **Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill** (Harrodsburg) — Thirty-four original buildings from the celibate utopians whose craftsmanship outlived them (celibacy will do that), on 3,000 acres of trails running down to the Kentucky River. Sleep in the dormitories, order the Trustees' Table fried chicken and the Shaker lemon pie (it will make you forget meringue), hear the spirituals. The quietest place in this entire atlas — and, one reader reports, possibly the last place in America where people still say 'you're welcome.' [Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/bourbon-68) - **Beaumont Inn** (Harrodsburg) — Yellow-legged fried chicken and Henry Bain sauce at a Beard 'America's Classic' — an 1845 Greek Revival girls' college that is 19th-century American architecture in prime condition, inside and out — in Kentucky's oldest permanent settlement (1774), run by the same family five generations. [Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/bourbon-68) - **Blackbird Cafe** (Harrodsburg) — Bakery-café in the 1865 Dedman's Drugstore on Main Street — sandwiches, soups and a pastry case, and the Pig Mac, which one reader drove home still talking about. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays. [Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/bourbon-68) ## Practical planning Budget an average of about 53 miles per day across the whole trip, or roughly 1.2–1.8 hours behind the wheel at an assumed 30–45 mph back-roads pace. This is a planning estimate, not a measured time for each leg: transfer days can be longer and rest days shorter. Add meal stops, tours, ferries, traffic and hikes separately; use each day's navigation link for current driving estimates. ### Overnight bases - Day 1: near Bardstown, KY - Day 2: near Harrodsburg, KY - Day 3: near Harrodsburg, KY ### Best season & route notes - [Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/bourbon-68): Distillery tours require sober drivers — sequence Shaker Village between tastings, or book a tour van. - [Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/bourbon-68): Mammoth Cave tours sell out summer weekends; reserve online. ## Frequently asked questions ### How many days and miles is A Reader's Central Kentucky: Bardstown to Shaker Village? A Reader's Central Kentucky: Bardstown to Shaker Village is a 3-day trip of about 160 miles. ### Where does A Reader's Central Kentucky: Bardstown to Shaker Village start? It starts in Bardstown, KY. ### Which routes does A Reader's Central Kentucky: Bardstown to Shaker Village chain together? It chains Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers. ### Where are the overnight bases on A Reader's Central Kentucky: Bardstown to Shaker Village? Day 1: near Bardstown, KY; Day 2: near Harrodsburg, KY; Day 3: near Harrodsburg, KY. ## Related itineraries - [The Long Way to the Opry](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/music-epic) — 21 days, ~3000 mi - [Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/bourbon-weekend) — 3 days, ~300 mi --- Canonical URL: https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/reader-central-kentucky Publisher: Dixie Media (Dixie Road Trip, https://dixieroadtrip.com/) Last updated: 2026-10-04