Happy birthday, brew you: Guinness Storehouse toasts 15th anniversary Deirdre Reynolds PUBLISHED02/12/2015 | 12:18 SHARE 4The Guinness Storehouse. Photo: Deposit Happy birthday, brew you – the Guinness Storehouse toasts its 15th anniversary in the capital today. SHARE The former fermentation plant famously underwent a massive €42 million facelift in 2000. A decade and a half on, the St James’s Gate attraction is expected to welcome its 14th million visitor this year. Celebrating the occasion, Guinness Storehouse Managing Director Paul Carty told Independent.ie: “When we first opened, our target was to welcome one million visitors. I saw that as very far off in the distance and stretching things to say the […]
Delphi Resort: At peace after banishing my fear of yoga Connemara Elle Gordon PUBLISHED23/11/2015 | 02:30 SHARE 1Delphi Adventure Resort Wellness Room An entire weekend of yoga. Sounds like a dream to most people. However, I felt chills down my spine at the thought. SHARE That is because I’m just not . . . how do I put it . . . bendy. I had visions of myself sweaty and frazzled, surrounded by a room full of smug people smoothly moving into pretzel-like positions. Yet my weekend of yoga turned out to be among the most enjoyable and peaceful few days that I have had in a long time – […]
Ireland by Instagram: Top travel photographers showcase Ireland to 3.5 million followers #TalesOfIreland Online Editors PUBLISHED04/12/2015 | 12:20 SHARE 8Dún Briste, Co. Mayo. Photo: Conor MacNeil Four of Britain’s top travel photographers have been sharing images of Ireland with millions of fans on Instagram. SHARE The snapshots of iconic landscapes, buildings and hidden gems were shared by Ruairidh McGlynn, James Wright, Allan Hinton and Conor MacNeil as they ventured along some of the country’s most spectacular driving routes this autumn. The #TalesOfIreland campaign, a collaboration between Stena Line and Tourism Ireland, saw the photographers split into pairs and hit the road in classic 1973 VW campervans for an action-packed weekend. […]
Travel Writer, Mayo: “Because it wasn’t vineyards and bistros we initially had a feeling of being hard done by. We were, of course, entirely wrong.” Emma Sides chooses Belmullet over Bordeaux and discovers a holiday she didn’t know she would appreciate “Blind Harbour’s secret beach within a beach, reached by clambering through a small cave, still gave me a thrill and brought me back to boogie boarding on wooden surfboards (purchased in Cornwall in the 1950s) and cartwheels and handstands on the sand to warm up after.” Last summer, trying to save money, we ditched our plans for a continental holiday and exchanged Bordeaux for Belmullet, pretty much as far […]
Ireland’s 100 Best Places to Stay – and they’re surprisingly affordable “It’s about authenticity” Pól Ó Conghaile Twitter EMAIL PUBLISHED12/03/2015 | 06:48 SHARE 7Newforge House, Co. Armagh McKennas’ Guides has published its 100 Best Places to Stay in Ireland, with some fascinating inclusions… and exclusions. SHARE The influential guide features 12 new entries this year, ranging from Dublin’s five-star Marker Hotel to Glencarrig Farmhouse B&B on Co. Clare’s Loop Head peninsula. Ard Na Sidhe in Co. Kerry – recently voted one of the world’s best affordable places to stay by Condé Nast Traveler – also makes the cut for the first time. Cork City’s River Lee Hotel is new to […]
666 years in the making, is this Ireland’s most haunted house? Loftus Hall’s devil in the detail Pól Ó Conghaile Twitter EMAIL PUBLISHED30/03/2015 | 22:46 SHARE 5Loftus Hall at Halloween. A group of paranormal investigators claims to have encountered “major temperature drops” and electro-magnetic field spikes at a house said to be Ireland’s most haunted. SHARE Irish Ghost Hunters (IGH) visited Loftus Hall on Wexford’s Hook Peninsula to carry out several paranormal investigations this March. The spectre-seekers found “major temperature drops” as well as “significant spikes” in electro-magnetic fields (EMF) in some areas of the house, they say. “Our team is scientific, we don’t work with psychics or mediums,” […]
Barfly: Porterhouse Temple Bar, Dublin Nineteen years after it opened, the chain’s first Dublin pub is thriving Porterhouse Temple Bar: walls are heavy with craft beer bottles, the stairwell lined with awards. It’s 19 years since Porterhouse opened their brewhouse on Parliament Street in Dublin 2. It wasn’t such a busy spot then: craft beer was foreign, Temple Bar was in its infancy, the boom was a pipe dream and a group of young men taking on the might of the brewing industry seemed like a crazy waste of time. Nearly two decades, six bars, a devoted customer base and multiple awards later and they seem to have made their […]
The terrifying – but funny – world of the disgruntled TripAdvisor reviewer Ireland’s grumpiest visitors Joe O’Shea PUBLISHED12/08/2015 | 02:30 SHARE 7The Rock of Cashel at sunset. They’re our top attractions, but to some caustic critics, the Cliffs of Moher are ‘just cliffs with vicious parking fees’ and the Book of Kells is ‘old and dirty’. Joe O’Shea unearths the funniest TripAdvisor reviews… SHARE The Rock of Cashel is “just a rock and some ruins”, Blarney Castle is “basically hell on earth” and Cork’s famed English Market is “full of smelly fish shops”. Don’t even think about going to the Cliffs Of Moher, all you will see is “fog and […]
TripAdvisor reveals its Top 10 Irish Museums – No.1 fits into a single house in Dublin Punching above its weight Pól Ó Conghaile Twitter EMAIL PUBLISHED18/09/2015 | 11:30 SHARE 3Trevor White, Director of The Little Museum of Dublin, one of our less obvious attractions. Ireland’s No.1 museum is a small, non-profit housed in a Georgian building overlooking Dublin’s Stephen’s Green. SHARE That’s according to TripAdvisor, which has just named the Little Museum of Dublin as Ireland’s top museum in its Travellers’ Choice Awards. The non-profit museum, which tells the story of the capital throughout the 20th century, is just four years old. Its collection was donated by the public, with […]
Skellig Michael: Is 6th-century rock star selling out to a galaxy far, far away? The Force Awakens Graham Clifford PUBLISHED06/09/2015 | 02:30 SHARE ‘Star Wars’ is coming back, but should it be a welcome guest on ancient Skellig, asks our reporter. SHARE Just days old, the little bird would easily fit into the palm of my hand. Nestled between the stone walls of a monastic beehive hut, the grey, fluffy storm petrel chick is sheltered from the elements. In another corner I hear a Manx shearwater cooing as the winds roll in from the Atlantic. This is Skellig Michael, monastic rock, ecological paradise and since last year, a film set. […]