Anyone on a tour of Ireland, who is interested in prehistory, should stop at Lough Gur. This is a horseshoe shaped lake in the eastern part of Limerick. It is close to the Tipperary border. Extensive excavations here have uncovered the earliest forms of houses yet discovered in...
This is a village worth stopping at on any tours of Ireland. The scones alone at the tourist centre are worth the visit. The village sits on the Maigue River, which is good for salmon and trout fishing. The nearby Adare Manor is a fine limestone building in...
This stronghold in Rathkeale, County Limerick was erected in 1440. It was built by James Fitzgerald, Earl of Desmond. Fitzgerald held control over Cork, Limerick, Kerry, and Waterford for over 50 years. It guards the passage of the River Deel with its eighty-foot-high tower. The castle is very impressive...
This is not a place we visit on many tours of Ireland. Many clients want to avoid cities and concentrate on rural Ireland. But it does have a lot to offer. It has many fine Georgian houses, interesting old quays, and bridges over the River Shannon. King Johns Castle...
These extend from Tipperary across the Limerick border to merge with the Ballyhoura Hills. The highest point is 3018 feet. There are several small lakes on the north slopes including Lough Curra and Lough Muskry. O’Loughnans Castle is a rock which is well known. It is not an...
This charming village on the banks of the Shannon is the seat of the Knights of Glin, a branch of the Fitzgerald’s who have lived in the district for seven centuries. Their first medieval castle is a ruin, but west of the village you can...
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...
Rearing up from a steep hill like a jagged, broken tooth and visible for miles around is the shattered tower of the castle stronghold of the Fitzgeralds, Earls of Desmond. Their war cry, until such cries were banned by Henry VI, was ‘Shanid Abu’ (‘Shanid...
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...
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...