Places to Visit

Skellig Michael: discover why Irish monks chose to live on a remote Atlantic rock, and how their stone beehive huts have survived 1,400 years.

Discover the Black Valley in County Kerry — the last place in Ireland to receive electricity in 1976. A remote, hauntingly beautiful corner of Kerry.

The last 22 residents left the Great Blasket Island in 1953, carrying everything they owned. Discover the remarkable writers they left behind and what visitors find there today.

Ireland has thousands of abandoned villages — stone walls, open hearths and empty doorways on hillsides across the country. Here is what they mean, and how to find them.

Newgrange in County Meath is a 5,000-year-old passage tomb older than the pyramids. Once a year, at the winter solstice, sunlight floods its chamber for 17 minutes.

Discover County Carlow — from the mighty Browneshill Dolmen and the peaceful River Barrow to Altamont Gardens, Duckett’s Grove, and the Norman heritage of Ireland’s hidden garden county.

Discover County Leitrim — from Glencar Waterfall and the Shannon-Erne Waterway to Carrick-on-Shannon, Parke’s Castle, and the Shed Distillery. Ireland’s quietest county is its best-kept secret.

Discover County Roscommon — from Lough Key Forest Park and the Famine Museum at Strokestown to the ancient capital of Connacht at Rathcroghan. Ireland’s quiet kingdom rewards those who slow down.

Discover County Westmeath — from Athlone Castle and Sean’s Bar to the sacred Hill of Uisneach, Belvedere House, Fore Abbey, and the shores of Lough Ree. The heart of Ireland’s Ancient East.

Discover County Longford — Ireland’s literary heartland. From the ancient Corlea Trackway and Maria Edgeworth’s legacy to Lough Ree’s peaceful shores and the restored St Mel’s Cathedral, explore one of Ireland’s most overlooked Midlands treasures.