At the top of a winding inlet is the lively market town, laid out 1614 by the 1st Earl of Cork. The tall-spired Catholic church dominates the square. The handsome Presbyterian church, built in 1861, was converted into a post office after its once prosperous...
A dramatic 150ft rock outcrop crowned by the ruined walls of Masg Castle (or Dun Masg) soars above the low Laois countryside. Before the arrival of St Patrick in AD432, the rock and surrounding land were the property of the O’Moore clan chieftain Laois Ceannmor,...
The Glenmalur Valley is considered by many to be the most spectacular of County Wicklow’s glens, by others to be sombre and forbidding. It carries the River Avonbeg and begins just South of Rathdrum, but becomes a long, narrow glacial amphitheatre, with steep sides, above...
South-West of this seaside town is the stately, greystone Malahide Castle, home of the Talbot family from 1185 to 1973, when the last Lord Talbot de Malahide died. Its core is 14th century, though the turrets and battlements are later additions. Inside are rooms furnished...
This ‘gin palace’ is undoubtedly one of the finest Victorian buildings in Belfast. Its exterior is decorated with colourful tiles. Inside it is a riot of stained and painted glass and tiles, carved oak screens, gaslights, polished mahogany, glinting and gleaming brass pipes and taps....
The name Wicklow is the modern version of Wykinglo – Viking Meadow – the name of the 9th century Viking settlement here. After the Vikings came the early Christians , whose traces remain in the fragments of a 13th century Franciscan friary at the West...
High above the wave-lashed cliffs of Kerry Head , at the most Westerly point of the headland , stand two 2000 year old promontory forts , stone built defences strung across the neck of sea-girt promontories to reduce the area of attack. Today only crumbling...
There are some great offers on great hotels for early booking in 2014 !!! At Ireland Luxury Tours we advise anyone thinking of travelling from May to October to begin planning now...
A road leads along the West coast of Lough Swilly to Fanad Head , where on stormy days wild Atlantic seas beat against the cliffs. A short way to the South is the small resort of Portsalon , in a beautiful setting beside the broad...
Narrow streets only 12ft wide in places – a legacy of Viking times – are crammed along Wexford’s waterfront , where the quays tell of the times when the town was a busy port. But the harbour silted up in the late 19th century and...