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....
A few low stone walls and ruined buildings cupped in a hollow of protective hills , are all that is left of Ireland’s first Cistercian Abbey. It was founded in 1142 by St Malachy , Bishop of Armagh , after a stay in the French...
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...
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...
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...