"In a quiet water'd land stands Saint Kieran's city fair" are the poetic words used by the Offaly poet T W Rolleston (1857-1920) to describe Clonmacnoise, the monastic jewel in Offaly. One of the country's most important centers of craftmanship and learning in the medieval period,...
The well-known Irish ability to wax lyrical on just about any imaginable topic is often attributed to the 'Blarney'. Our driver/guides at Ireland Luxury Tours are "full of it". At Blarney Castle, close to the city of Cork, the Blarney Stone is said, if kissed, to...
In contrast to the wildness of western Ireland, the Southeast is mostly low-lying and docile. Rich pastureland watered by brimming rivers extends gently to a quiet coastline of long sandy beaches, estuarine mudflats of wading birds and low cliffs fringing deep bays. Ireland's most fertile...
The castle as we see it today dates largely from the 16th and 17th centuries. It is possible that everything that survives was built by the MacDonnells, but we like to think that at least the outer walls with the two round towers date back...
The brooding, conical outline of this mountain dominates the skyline all around southwest Mayo. It is associated with St Patrick, the site of his Lenten fast and legendary 'Pied Piper' act with the snakes. Each year, on the last Sunday in July, pilgrims make an...
Every visitor to the Southwest has to see Killarney. The town itself may be given over to tourism and choc-a-bloc in summer, but the immediate surroundings of the Killarney National Park are not to be missed and, if you can evade the milling coach parties...
DAY ONE : Fly into Dublin. Ireland Luxury Tours driver/guide will meet you at airport. Travel to Cork. (approx 3 hour drive). Book into the Hayfield Manor Hotel http://www.hotels.com/ho182169/hayfield-manor-hotel-cork-ireland/ for 2 nights. DAY TWO : Visit the English Market in Cork http://www.theenglishmarket.ie/ and historic Kinsale http://www.kinsale.ie/ DAY...
Many Irish towns and villages reveal their Georgian origins in wide streets, but Strokestown's is certainly exceptional. Originally modelled on Vienna's Ringstrasse, which had greatly impressed one of the local landowners, it is said to be the widest provincial main street in Ireland. The village...
Starting points for the famous 'Ring of Kerry' drive are Castlemaine (north of Killorglin), or Tralee. For scenic drama a clockwise tour is recommended (although the scenery at first is quiet and undramatic) with good dune beaches at Inch and small hamlets like Anascaul, with...
Ireland Luxury Tours likes its clients to get the best out of their tours to Ireland. Ladies' View is a place to pause for an unforgetable vista across the lakes of the National Park towards the Gap of Dunloe. The 'ladies' were Queen Victoria and her ladies-in-waiting,...