"Sing the peasantry and then Hard-riding country gentlemen" County Meath – known as “royal Meath” from its ancient connection and the Kings of Tara – is a country of democratically level pastures, royally rich grasslands, slow rivers and humid airs. Its wide fields are necessarily intersected by...
The traditional prophecy, attributed to St. Columbia, that “a stranger mounted on a white horse and bearing a shield of painted birds shall conquer Ulster” appeared to be fulfilled when John de Courcy headed the Norman invasion of Ulster in 1177. Gradually the Anglo-Norman overlords...
Enniskillen (Inis Ceitleann, Ceithle’s Island) the capital of County Fermanagh illustrates very well the long, neat, narrow street of the Northern Irish agricultural town. It stands on the winding River Erne between Upper and Lower Lough Erne. At this strategic bridge head the Maguires, turbulent...
The quiet coastal road which climbs up from the bay and village of Cushendun has its little hair-raising hills and hairpin drops leading to the most surprising landscape in Antrim, or indeed, in Ireland. To come unexpectedly upon lovely Murlough Bay with its high green...
One of Ireland’s most sumptuous houses, Ballyfin was built in 1826 by the 9th baronet Sir Charles Coote to replace a former, plainer dwelling. Most of the architectural and design work was done by Richard Morrison, a pupil of James Gandon. The sober exterior of the...
06 August - 09 August The European Challenge Tour will make a welcome return to the province this year with the Northern Ireland Open to take place at Galgorm Castle in Ballymena for the third consecutive year. The Galgorm showpiece broke all attendance records for any European...
Seagulls swirl around the trawlers entering the port of Killybegs, one of Ireland’s major fishing harbours. It is a rough and dynamic place, where foreign ships tower over the quayside, and the smell of fresh fish fills the air. Though the town looks typically Victorian, it...
This tiny island, surrounded by a salt lake and cut off from the sea by a sand bar, has been a place of pilgrimage since pre-Christian times. It was St Ibar who absorbed it into the Christian Church and dedicated it to the Virgin Mary....
One a strongly fortified harbour town, Youghal (pronounced ‘yawl’) is now a popular seaside resort with wide sandy beaches. Its Irish name means ‘yew wood’, from the forests that once covered the hinterland. Youghal is strategically placed at the mouth of the River Blackwater. It may...
County Clare is a peninsula on the grand scale, cut off on three of its four sides by Lough Derg, the Shannon estuary, and the Atlantic. It is linked with the rest of Munster by only half a dozen bridges, all of which are in...