Two Irish cities – Dublin and Cork – have made it into the top 50 friendliest cities in the world, in a survey carried out by Big 7 Travel. Dublin is in sixth position and Cork is at number 17. The popular travel website asked its ‘travel obsessed’ social audience of some 1.5 million followers to decide on the friendliest cities around the globe. To view the results, click here. Welcoming the news, Siobhan McManamy, Tourism Ireland’s Director of Markets, said: “I am delighted to see two of our cities appear in the Big 7 poll of friendliest cities around the globe. It is another well-deserved accolade for Dublin and […]
Walk … Bray Head, Co Wicklow This linear walk of about 7km, along a path that contours gently under Bray Head, is one for any day and in all seasons. Okay, it hasn’t the heart-stopping beauty of sea and rock experienced on, say, Slieve League or Glen Head in Donegal or Croughaun on Achill Island. Its pathway occupies a much more benign space: one probably more for chatty morning strollers and joggers, picnickers and coffee shoppers, even mountain-buggy pushers and dog walkers, than for hard-core hikers. Still, on the east coast resident’s score sheet of accessibility and gentleness of climate versus the wilder, more elemental beauty of the east, the […]
A whistlestop tour of Donegal’s Inishowen Peninsula on the Wild Atlantic Way Sitting at the table beside us in Farran’s bar, the most northerly pub in Ireland, was a group of tourists from Atlanta, Georgia. Like us, they had come for comfort food after exploring the breathtaking scenery on a blustery day in Malin Head. One tells the server: “I ordered a chicken and ‘tomayto’ sandwich.” “Tom-Ato, you mean,” quips the friendly barman as he lays the dish in front of the American. “You won’t find any tomaytos ‘round here…” It’s this inimitable Irish charm that makes our brilliant little island one of a kind… After a little chuckle to […]
What does Achill Island have in common with Tahiti, Iceland, California and the Seychelles? What does Achill Island have in common with Tahiti, Iceland, California and the Seychelles?The answer lies on the western end of the island and glorious Keem Bay which was last week selected by renowned travel writer Pól Ó Conghaile in his list of ten breathtaking beaches around the world.Keem Bay was the only Irish beach to make the shortlist, joining exotic locations like Matira Point in Tahiti and Anse Source D’Argent in the Seychelles.Pól Ó Conghaile compiled the list for last Thursday’s Irish Independent and said the following of Keem: “Achill boasts five Blue Flag beaches, […]
Get to a festival in Galway In summer, it seems like every weekend is host to a fiesta of some sort, whether it’s a ginormous music festival or a tiny village bash. But Galway is the king of festival season – from the summer races to the Film Fleadh, from the September Oyster Festival to the explosion of theatrics, music and art that is the annual Arts Festival. The streets are alive with performance, with illuminated puppetry taking centre stage. There’s a cracking food scene in Galway all year round, so keep an eye out for the April food festival too – NB While you’re at it: Grab a bite […]
Step into the Hole in the Wall, Kilkenny The first time I chanced on this offbeat wine bar in Kilkenny, I ended up writing words of Irish on a piece of paper while watching a documentary on George Clooney. The second time, I got chatting to a group of Canadian visitors who had just been playing hurling. It’s that kind of place – and that’s not even starting on the old Tudor building itself, hidden away down one of Kilkenny’s magical medieval alleyways. Dr. Michael Conway is the modest visionary behind this little gem. Stay long enough, and you may forget the rest of Kilkenny entirely
Visit the southern tip of Ireland, Co. Cork When you get to the very bottom of Ireland, at Mizen Head, there’s a bridge across a gorge. On the other side, set on a tiny rocky outcrop above the wild waters of the Atlantic is Mizen Head Signal Station which was home to three light keepers until 1993. The Mizen Centre museum sets the scene but it’s not until you walk down the 99 steps and then get yourself across the bridge that you feel the power of the ocean and the isolation that the keepers must have experienced in times past – YG While you’re at it: Ireland’s most southerly […]
Patrick Kavanagh Country, Co Monaghan You’ve heard of Yeats Country. You know Joyce’s Dublin. Seamus Heaney is soon to get his own visitor centre in Bellaghy. So why, oh why, is the gorgeously intimate landscape of Patrick Kavanagh’s life and poetry so off-radar? Within a 13.5km walk, cycle or drive from the heritage centre in Inniskeen, you’ll find the poet’s grave (a modest wooden cross), the family homestead, Billy Brennan’s Barn and Inniskeen Road, where the bicycles went by in twos and threes on that eponymous July evening. Monaghan has its magic, all right – The bicycles go by in twos and threes – There’s a dance in Billy […]
Stay at Ballyfin, Co Laois Ordinary folk may have to sacrifice the kids’ college fund to stay here, but a visit to Ballyfin is a re-immersaion in the golden age of Irish country house hospitality. From the moment staff greet you on the steps of the Regency-era pile to the lavish stuccowork, sumptuous library and butlers who will unpack your luggage, you’ll feel to the manner born. Arguably, it’s Ireland’s finest 21st century restoration – PÓC While you’re at it: Co Cork’s Ballyvolane is another masterful Blue Book bolthole… this one complete with glamping and its own artisan gin
Go to Glasnevin Cemetery There’s something so quintessentially Irish about Glasnevin Cemetery. Weave between the headstones and your guide will know the intertwining secrets of practically each soul who rests there; the friends who became enemies, the lovers and the arch adversaries now buried a hop from one other. It’s probably the best history lesson you can get in the city – NB While you’re at it: Get nostalgic with a visit to the Little Museum of Dublin, one of the quirkiest museums around.