Hidden Gems - Ireland's Quiet Corners

From the lonely, wind-lashed wilderness of Donegal to the postcard landscapes of West Cork, Ireland is one of the world's most beautiful countries, and worth every effort you make to explore it. Scenic superstars like Connemara and Kerry are stunning, but overwhelming popular. Discerning travellers have discovered quieter idylls: the lakes of County Fermanagh, the beaches of Dunfanaghy or the tranquil island of Inishturk. Here you can come into contact with a more genuine Ireland, well off the beaten path.

For every guesthouse and village that strives to become another hub on the tourist trail, there's another that tenaciously clings to its traditional character. Lovers of simplicity may never want to leave the Shiplake Mountain Hostel in County Cork, where guests sleep in painted wooden caravans, shower using fresh spring water and breakfast on the hostel's own duck eggs. From here, you're a short drive to the picturesque villages and stunning coastal road of the Beara Peninsula, where you can escape even further into the landscape by strapping on your hiking boots.

You needn't disappear into a bog or a glen to escape the madding crowd, though. Respite can be found even in the heart of Ireland's cities. At Sandycove, just outside Dublin, you'll find the Forty Foot Pool, an icon of sea bathing made famous in Ulysses, and which has changed little in the intervening years. It's open whatever the weather, and in the morning it's nude and male only. In these pampered, metrosexual times, that's about as Spartan as it gets.

Did we say Spartan? Check out Skellig Michael for an idea of real austerity. This remote, sea-battered rock looks like the last place on earth that anyone would try to land, let alone establish a community. Yet, somehow, early Christian monks survived here from the 6th to the 13th century. Their determined quest for ultimate solitude (and a safe haven from Viking marauders) led them to this remote, windblown edge of Europe. It's the very definition of 'getting away from it all'.