Sights in The Coast
- Sort by:
- Popular
-
Wicklow’s Historic Gaol
Wicklow’s infamous jail, opened in 1702 to deal with prisoners sentenced under the repressive Penal Laws, was renowned throughout Ireland for the brutality of its keepers and the harsh conditions suffered by its inmates. The smells, vicious beatings, shocking food and disease-ridden air have long since gone, but adults and children alike can experience a sanitised version of what the prison was like – and stimulate the secret sadist buried deep within – in the highly entertaining tour of the prison, now one of Wicklow’s most popular tourist attractions. Actors play the roles of the various jailers and prisoners, adding to the sense of drama already heightened by the vario…
reviewed
-
Killruddery House & Gardens
About 3km south of Bray on the Greystones road are Killruddery House & Gardens. A stunning mansion in the Elizabethan Revival style, Killruddery has been home to the Brabazon family (earls of Meath) since 1618 and has one of the oldest gardens in Ireland. The house, designed by trendy 19th-century architects Richard Morrisson and his son William in 1820, was reduced to its present-day huge proportions by the 14th earl in 1953; he was obviously looking for something a little more bijou. The house is impressive, but the prizewinner here is the magnificent orangery, built in 1852 and chock-full of statuary and plant life. If you like fancy glasshouses, this is the one for yo…
reviewed
-
Mt Usher Gardens
Horticulturalists from around the world can be found salivating and muttering in approval as they walk around the 8-hectare Mt Usher Gardens, just outside the unremarkable town of Ashford, about 10km south of Greystones on the N11. OK, not really, but the gardens are pretty special, with trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants from around the world laid out in Robinsonian style – ie according to the naturalist principles of famous Irish gardener William Robinson (1838–1935) – rather than the formalist style of preceding gardens.
reviewed
-
National Sealife Centre
The National Sealife Centre is the British-run aquarium which has a fairly big selection of tanks, stocked with 70 different sea and freshwater species.
reviewed
