The 13th century Anglo-Norman Roscrea Castle consists of a gate tower, curtain walls and two corner towers. In the courtyard stands Damer House, a Queen Anne-style residence with a magnificent staircase and Georgian garden. Just over the river lies St Cronan’s Monastery which has a...
Bantry Bay encompasses the resorts of Bantry and Glengarriff. It is also a springboard for trips to Mizen Head and the Beara Peninsula. Bantry nestles beneath the hills which run down to the bay. Just offshore you can see Whiddy Island, the original home of the...
Ireland’s largest island, 22km long and 19km wide, is reached by a road bridge that can be raised for boats to pass through. Achill offers the more intrepid visitor moorland, mountains, rugged cliffs and beautiful long beaches, and is a very popular spot for angling and...
This town, on the mouth of the River Sheen, was founded in 1670 by William Petty, Cromwell’s surveyor general. However, Kenmare’s appearance owes more to his descendant, the first Marquess of Lansdowne who, in 1775, made it a model landlord’s town of neat stone facades...
Lying just south of Rathdrum, Avondale House was the birthplace of the 19th century politician and patriot, Charles Stewart Parnell. The Georgian mansion is now a museum dedicated to Parnell and the flight for Home Rule. The state owns Avondale and runs a forestry school here,...
In amongst the produce stalls and family-run stores in the warren of streets to the west of O’Connell Street stands what was once one of the most important society church’s in 18th & 19th century Dublin. Dating back to 1697, its design is usually credited...
Rosguill Peninsula juts out into the Atlantic Ocean between Sheephaven and Mulroy bays. The simplest way to see it is to follow the 11km Atlantic Drive, a circular route which skirts the clifftops at the tip of the headland. Doe Castle, north of Creeslough village, is...
Situated on the Glandore road west of Clontakilty, Drombeg is the finest of the many stone circles in County Cork. Dating back to about 150 BC, this circle of 17 standing stones is 9m in diameter. At the winter solstice, the rays of the setting...
Originally one of three ancient commons in the old city, St Stephen’s Green was enclosed in 1664. The 22 acre green was laid out in its present form in 1880, using a grant given by Lord Ardilaun, a member of the Guinness family. Landscaped with...
About 4 miles off Sligo’s untamed northern coast lies an uninhabited, windswept island that contains one of the best-preserved early Christian monasteries in Ireland. The monastery was founded by St Molaise in the 6th century and destroyed by the Vikings in 807. Three churches remain,...