Westport House: the estate, the grounds, and what to expect
The house sits lower than you'd expect. Coming up the driveway from Westport, through the trees, you're half-braced for something that announces…
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Brittas Bay: the beach Dubliners escape to in summer
On any sunny Saturday in July, the N11 south of Bray moves the way a river moves when something has blocked the outlet: slowly, with a quiet…
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…
Matt Molloy's Bar and the Westport trad scene
There's a green pub on Bridge Street in Westport that you'll find entirely by accident the first time, even if you've been trying to find it on…
Phoenix Park Dublin: the deer, the monuments, and how to spend a full day
Somewhere between the main road and the treeline, once the city noise has dropped behind you, Phoenix Park stops feeling like a park and starts…
Dalkey and Killiney Hill: a day on Dublin's south coast
Twenty-five minutes south on the DART from Pearse Street and you're in a place that doesn't look like the city at all. Dalkey drops you into a…
The English Market in Cork: what to see, eat, and buy
The English Market in Cork is the kind of place that stops you mid-step and makes you look up at the ceiling, at the ornate cast-iron galleries and…
Belfast's murals and the peace walls: what a Black Cab tour shows you
The murals in Belfast are not decorative. They are the city talking to itself, and to you, and they have been doing it since the 1970s. There are…
The Dingle Peninsula from Killarney, the day trip that takes over
The problem with the Dingle Peninsula as a day trip from Killarney is the word 'day'. You'll need one. You might need two. And there's a fair chance…
Salthill and the Prom: Galway's seaside walk
Walk the two kilometres of the Salthill Promenade on any morning and you'll see the same cast. Swimmers pulling themselves out of Galway Bay with…
The Vale of Avoca, where Thomas Moore wrote the poem and the mill never stopped
The Vale of Avoca runs south from the Wicklow Mountains in a long corridor of oak and ash, the kind of valley you'd drive past without stopping and…
Indoor things to do in Dublin when it's lashing
It is going to lash. Not every day, not all day, but at some point during your trip to Dublin the sky will go the colour of wet slate and the rain…
Ennistymon: the market town three kilometres from Lahinch
The Inagh River comes barrelling through the centre of Ennistymon, drops over a series of rock ledges that the locals call the Cascades, and if you…
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…
Doolin Cave: the world's longest free-hanging stalactite
Seven metres underground, hanging from the ceiling of a cave on a working farm outside Doolin, there is a stalactite that took around 350,000 years…
The Military Road through Sally Gap, Wicklow's best drive
The Military Road is the old army road that runs straight over the top of the Wicklow Mountains, and it is still the best drive within an hour of…
Killarney without a car: jaunting cars, bikes, and everything you can reach on foot
Killarney is one of the only places in Ireland where not having a car is genuinely fine. Maybe even better than fine. The national park surrounds the…
Howth on a Sunday: the cliff walk, the seafood, and how to actually spend the day
Thirty minutes on the DART from Pearse Street and you step off into a fishing village with a lighthouse on the horizon, lobster rolls on the pier…
Galway on foot: Shop Street to the Spanish Arch
The medieval street network at the heart of Galway is probably the most walkable stretch of any Irish city. Everything worth seeing on a first visit…