With some great travel bargains on offer, Malcolm Rogers embarks on
an Irish sightseeing holiday.
1. If you have to visit one unique slice of Ireland, make sure it’s The
Burren in Co. Clare. This beautiful region occupies most of the county.
In spring and summer it’s home to both Arctic and Mediterranean flowers
filling the trenches between huge limestone slabs.
2. Fans of prehistoric monuments should head for Tyrone which is littered
with Neolithic stone circles. Halfway between Cookstown and Omagh is the
Creggan Visitors’ Centre — 44 monuments “of prehistoric significance” have
been identified within a five mile radius. Try the Dun Ruadh tombs and stone
circle.
3. If you have to stay in one medium-priced bed and breakfast, make it
the Lacken Mill House. The restored Victorian mill-house is seven miles
from Cavan town set amid gardens and woodland areas along the River Erne.
The cooking is top notch. B&B E38.00 per person sharing tel: 00 353 49 433
7592).
4. If you want to go to a banquet, you’re spoilt for choice. For a Gaelic
gastronomic experience, try Leap Castle in Co. Offaly. The Master of the
Castle Sean Ryan, provides banquets of mead wine, hearty soups, stuffed
pheasant, roast beef, and wheaten bread. E60 per person, tel: 00 353 509
31115
5. Take a trip through Ireland’s lake district in Galway-Mayo. It extends
from Ballyglass to the north of Lough Carra, south along Lough Mask and
Loughnafooey towards the northern tip of Lough Corrib. A breathtaking panorama
of unspoilt scenery, the historic Ashford Castle and the location where
The Quiet Man was shot are there to be explored.
6. For an awe inspiring view go north to south west Donegal. The Slieve
League Cliffs near Carrick have to be one of the most magnificent sights
in Europe. The richness in colour of the massive rock face provides non-stop
visual pleasures.
Different hues in the rock mingle with stains of metallic ores, washed-down
clays and soils providing a colourful background to the Atlantic.
7. If you have to visit one country house, make it Lissadell House, Co.
Sligo, immortalised by W. B. Yeats. The house itself is a large and austere
Grecian Revival home beautifully situated amid woods and glades on the north
shore of Sligo Bay. Lisadell is full of history, including being mortgaged
during the Famine.
8. For a scenic drive, take the Antrim Coast Road. Running along Ireland’s
north eastern seaboard this is reckoned to be one of the most spectacular
roads in the world. You will see the Giant’s Causeway, a geological wonder
known throughout the world. Likewise the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge.
9. For a great feed visit The Kitchen Bar, 16-18 Victoria Square, Belfast,
Tel: 028 9032 4901.
The bar’s part American diner, part Spanish tapas bar, part Irish pub. Breakfasts
boast three kinds of home made bread — wheaten, soda and potato farls as
well as the finest bacon and sausages in Ireland; specialities including
a Paddy’s pizza — soda bread with a slice of boiled gammon, Coleraine cheddar
and tomatoes topped with eggs.
Also try the Irish stew with beef with towering escarpments of mashed potatoes.
Paddy’s Pizza, all £3.95. The Bap Out Of Hell is a quid dearer.
10. If you have to visit one graveyard, it has to be Glasnevin Cemetery
in north Dublin. A large slice of Irish history is represented here — Michael
Collins, de Valera, archbishops and cardinals, writers and poets, and of
course the late lamented Luke Kelly. Irish history brought starkly into
relief in front of your very eyes.
