Some of the regions finest attractions lie in the gentle hills and lush valleys of Dumfries and Galloway. Ideal for families, there is plenty on offer for the kids. Galloway Forest is a highlight with its sublime, mountain biking and walking trails, red deer, kites...
Glencolumbkille (the glen of St. Columba), is said to have been a favourite retreat of the saint and his disciples. On the hillside ascending north to Glen Head – a sheer precipice 227m high, with a Napoleonic signal tower above it – are the House,...
The northern and eastern slopes of the Grampian Mountains are draped with a long broad, green mantle of fertile lowlands, fringed with forests and hemmed around with long, sandy beaches and rugged, bird-haunted cliffs, bejewelled here and there with picturesque little fishing villages. Many visitors pass...
Roscommon is an old wool-town, deriving its name (Coman’s wood) from a monastery founded here by St. Coman in 746. The most conspicuous building is the huge Roscommon Castle, immediately north of the town, to the left of the road. It was erected by Sir Robert...
The earliest known human settlement of Ireland occurred in the Mesolithic 8000BC, when tribes from Europe crossed to Ireland by boat from Scotland, or possibly across a land-bridge from Britain or the Isle of Man, to the east coast of Ireland. Hunter-gatherer habitation sites and...
West of Sligo, on the south side of the estuary, is the resort of Strandhill. On the shore to the north is the church of Killespugbrone (church of Bishop Bronus), named after a disciple of St. Patrick. A curious feature of this little ruin is...
The picturesque village of Edzell, with its broad main street and grandiose monumental arch, dates from the early 19th century when Lord Panmure decided that the original medieval village, a mile to the west, spoiled the view from Edzell Castle. The old village was razed...
Bective Abbey, on the left bank of the Boyne close to Bective Bridge is one of the more picturesque of the ruined abbeys of Meath. It was founded in 1147 for Cistercians by Murchad O’Melaghlin, King of Meath and soon rose to importance, its abbot...
A massive collection of stone, with a heavy cubist beauty, Hermitage Castle sits isolated beside a rushing stream surrounded by bleak, empty moorland. Dating from the 13th century, but substantially rebuilt in the 15th, it embodies the brutal history of the Borders; the stones themselves...
Valetina Island – also known as Valencia – with its dramatic cliffs at Bray Head, is separated from the mainland by a torturous sound with narrow entrances. It is 11km long and 3km broad, and was once famous for its slate. The original Altlantic cable...