Glasnevin Cemetery and the National Botanic Gardens, Dublin

There is a half-day available in Dublin that most visitors never take, and it sits quietly on the northside wondering what it did wrong. Glasnevin…

Avondale House and Forest Park, Rathdrum: Parnell's Wicklow home

Avondale House is the birthplace of Charles Stewart Parnell, and if the name means nothing to you yet, it will. This is the man who came within a…

Glenmalure: Wicklow's longest valley and wildest half-day

Glenmalure is twenty kilometres of glacial valley running back into the Wicklow Mountains, and it's the closest thing Ireland has to genuinely…

Ulster Museum Belfast: what's actually inside the city's best free museum

Here's what most people do in Belfast: Titanic Quarter, murals tour, a feed in the Cathedral Quarter, maybe St George's on a Saturday. Here's what…

Muckross House and Traditional Farms, Killarney: what to actually see

You'll walk past the jaunting car drivers at the main gate and think "maybe later," and then you'll come back from the house and the gardens and the…

Kylemore Abbey, Connemara: the history and how to visit

Kylemore Abbey is a Victorian castle in Connemara that a wealthy Manchester doctor built in the 1860s because he loved his wife and apparently had…

Wicklow Gaol: what you find inside the county's oldest prison

Most people drive through Wicklow town on the way to somewhere else and barely slow down. It's understandable. The mountains are up ahead, the…

Trinity College Dublin and the Book of Kells: what to know before you visit

Trinity College Dublin and the Book of Kells is one of those Dublin experiences that sounds like a school tour but turns out to be genuinely…

Spike Island: the fort, the prison, and how to visit

The ferry from Kennedy Pier gives you about twelve minutes to look at the thing before you have to get off it, and that's about right. Spike Island…

Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin: the guided tour and what you're walking into

You won't regret coming here, but you should know what you're in for. Kilmainham Gaol is not a fun afternoon. It is genuinely moving in parts, slow…

Titanic Belfast: how to make the most of a visit

Belfast built the Titanic. That's the bit that usually gets dropped from the story in favour of the iceberg and the lifeboats. The ship was designed…

Blarney Castle: the honest guide

Blarney Castle sits eight kilometres north of Cork city and draws somewhere around half a million visitors a year. The stone gets nearly all the…

Grace O'Malley, the Pirate Queen of Clew Bay

She was fifty-six years old when she sailed from Connacht to Greenwich to negotiate face to face with Queen Elizabeth I. Neither spoke the other's…

Cobh and the Titanic, the half-day trip from Cork

Cobh, on a hilly headland in Cork harbour, was the last port of call for the Titanic in April 1912. Half the visitors who come to Cork city tag on a…

Fun facts about Belfast

Belfast is one of the most rewarding cities to visit on the island, and one that surprises first-timers. Here are a few things even regular visitors…

Fun facts about Cork

Cork is a city with a chip on its shoulder and the right to wear it. Here are some things visitors usually do not know about the second-largest city…

Fun facts about Dublin

Dublin is the kind of city that has more layers than it lets on. Vikings, Georgians, novelists, rebellions, and a brewery you have probably heard of…

Fun facts about Carlingford

Carlingford is one of those villages that looks small until you start poking around. Norman castles, ghost stories, oysters, leprechauns. Here are a…

Leprechauns explained: Ireland's tiny tricksters, real folklore, and where the lore still lives

Leprechauns are the most photographed Irishmen in the world and the least understood. Strip away the cereal-box mascot and you find one of the oldest…

The History of Carlingford: A Walk Through 800 Years of Heritage

The History of Carlingford: A Walk Through 800 Years of Heritage Carlingford is not just a pretty village with great pubs. It is one of the most…