At the top of a winding inlet is the lively market town, laid out 1614 by the 1st Earl of Cork. The tall-spired Catholic church dominates the square. The handsome Presbyterian church, built in 1861, was converted into a post office after its once prosperous...
A dramatic 150ft rock outcrop crowned by the ruined walls of Masg Castle (or Dun Masg) soars above the low Laois countryside. Before the arrival of St Patrick in AD432, the rock and surrounding land were the property of the O’Moore clan chieftain Laois Ceannmor,...
The Glenmalur Valley is considered by many to be the most spectacular of County Wicklow’s glens, by others to be sombre and forbidding. It carries the River Avonbeg and begins just South of Rathdrum, but becomes a long, narrow glacial amphitheatre, with steep sides, above...
Even though it lies in ruins, this Franciscan friary is unusually complete and gives an interesting insight into monastic life. Ross Errilly Abbey (or Ross Abbey) was founded in the middle of the 14th century by the de Burgo family, although most of what remains...
The River Bann divides this village in two, with part of the population living in County Londonderry and the rest in County Antrim. They are connected by a wide bridge. Black basalt stone has been used in many of the buildings in the village, particularly the...
South-West of this seaside town is the stately, greystone Malahide Castle, home of the Talbot family from 1185 to 1973, when the last Lord Talbot de Malahide died. Its core is 14th century, though the turrets and battlements are later additions. Inside are rooms furnished...
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...