At the head of Clonakilty Bay is a peninsula known as Inchydoney Island , and so called because up to 1845 it was cut off from the mainland at high tide. The high tide no longer rises high enough to isolate Inchydoney , and two...
This large ruin of a friary shares much with its neighbour , Rosserk. Both compete for the title of largest and most impressive ecclesiastical ruins in Mayo. Moyne was founded as a Franciscan friary by the Burke family , built in late Irish Gothic style...
Rising from an Island is Lough Oughter is a massive , circular stone tower , 59ft high. The lower storey , with walls 6ft thick , was built in the 13th century on an existing crannog , or artificial island , which had natural rock...
Surrounded by mud flats where wildfowl thrive , Foaty Island (also called Fota Island) includes a 70 acre wildlife park owned by the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland. The park contains cheetahs , and , wandering virtually unhindered , giraffes , zebras , wallabies and...
The most romantic ruin in Louth , Castle Roche is built on a pinnacle of rock , which commands spectacular views of the countryside. It has a large D-shaped curtain of castellated walls and a fine twin-towered gatehouse , around uneven , grassed-over floors. It...
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...
The Victorian architect Edward Godwin borrowed from fantasy land when he built Dromore Castle for the 3rd Earl of Limerick. He created a fortress that would have withstood the most determined attack , had such an attack been likely in the 19th century. Tradition has it...
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...
No building could look less like an Abbey , for when it was built in the 1830s for the Barrington family , Glenstal was designed as a castle in 12th century style. It has a great gate and a massive drum tower that resembles the...