Sights in Ireland
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Murlough National Nature Reserve
Footpaths and boardwalks meander among the grassy dunes, with great views back towards the Mournes.
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Mourne Wall
The dry-stone Mourne Wall was built between 1904 and 1922 to keep livestock out of the catchment area of the Kilkeel and Annalong Rivers, which were to be dammed to provide a water supply for Belfast. (Poor geological conditions meant the Annalong could not be dammed, and its waters were diverted to the Silent Valley Reservoir via a 3.6km-long tunnel beneath Slieve Binnian.) The spectacular wall, 2m high, 1m thick and over 35km long, marches across the summits of 15 of the surrounding peaks including the highest, Slieve Donard (853m).
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Monuments & Sculptures
The town centre, the Square, features a Daniel O'Connell monument. His election to the British parliament by a huge majority in 1828 forced Britain to lift its bar on Catholic MPs and led to the Act of Catholic Emancipation a year later. The 'Great Liberator' stands on an extremely high column, so far above the rest of us you would hardly know he was there.
Eamon de Valera was the parliamentary representative for Clare from 1917 to 1959; a bronze statue of him stands near Ennis courthouse.
Numerous modern sculptures can be found scattered around the town centre. Works include the Weathered Woman on Old Barrack St, which is both interesting and provides a handy place to sit.…
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Millmount Museum & Tower
Across the river from town, in a villagelike enclave amid a sea of dull suburbia, is Millmount, an artificial hill overlooking the town. The mound may have been a prehistoric burial ground along the lines of Newgrange, but it has never been excavated. Legend has it that it is the burial place of Amergin, a warrior-poet who arrived in Ireland from Spain around 1500 BC.
The Normans constructed a motte-and-bailey fort on top of this convenient command post overlooking the bridge. It was followed by a castle, which in turn was replaced by a Martello tower in 1808. The tower played a dramatic role in the 1922 Civil War, when it was Drogheda's chief defensive feature and…
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Medieval Banquet
If you skip the high-jinks in the corn barn, you may opt for a medieval banquet, replete with harp-playing maidens, court jesters and food with a medieval motif (lots of meaty items, but somehow we think the real stuff would empty the place right out). It's all washed down with mead – a kind of honey wine. The banquets are very popular with groups, so it's advisable for independent travellers to book well ahead.
The banquets at Knappogue Castle and Dunguaire Castle (in Galway) are similar but more sedate.
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Market Cross
Until 1996 the Market Cross had stood for centuries in Cross St, at the heart of the town centre. Besides inviting the pious admiration of the faithful, the cross was used as a gallows in the aftermath of the 1798 revolt; the British garrison hanged rebels from the crosspiece, one on each arm so the cross wouldn't fall over. But what a thousand years of foul weather and the sacrilegious British couldn't do, a careless bus driver did in 1996 and with one bad turn the cross was toppled. It was eventually repaired and re-erected.
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Marconi Memorial
In the harbour car park, the Marconi Memorial is a plaque at the foot of a rock pinnacle. Guglielmo Marconi's assistants contacted Rathlin Island by radio from Ballycastle in 1898 to prove to Lloyds of London that wireless communication was a viable proposition. The idea was to send notice to London or Liverpool of ships arriving safely after a transatlantic crossing – most vessels on this route would have to pass through the channel north of Rathlin.
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Lismore Heritage Centre
Features a 30-minute audiovisual presentation taking you from the arrival of St Carthage in AD 636 to the present day via the discovery of the Book of Lismore behind a wall in the castle in 1814 and John F Kennedy's visit in 1947.
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Lismore Castle
From the Cappoquin road there are stunning glimpses of the riverside 'castle', which has lots of windows that would undercut any efforts at defence. While you can't get inside the four impressive walls of the main, crenulated building (unless you're looking to rent it for a group event), you can visit the 3 hectares of ornate and manicured gardens. Thought to be the oldest in Ireland, they are divided into the walled Jacobean upper garden and less formal lower garden. There are brilliant herbaceous borders, magnolias and camellias, and a splendid yew walk where Edmund Spenser is said to have written The Faerie Queen. There are contemporary sculptures in the gardens and a…
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Layde Old Church
From the car park beside the beach, a coastal path leads 1km north to the picturesque ruins of Layde Old Church,with views across to Ailsa Craig (a prominent conical island also known as 'Paddy's Milestone') and the Scottish coast. Founded by the Franciscans, it was used as a parish church from the early 14th century until 1790. The graveyard contains several grand MacDonnell memorials. Near the gate stands an ancient, weathered ring-cross (with the arms missing), much older than the 19th-century inscription on its shaft.
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La Téne Stone
A rare Iron Age spiral-inscribed stone can be seen on private land in Castle strange, 7km southwest of town on the R366.
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Knockreer House & Gardens
Near the St Mary's Cathedral entrance to the park stands Knockreer House, with gardens featuring a terraced lawn and a summerhouse. The original 1870s structure burned down; the present incarnation dates from 1958. The house isn't open to the public, but its gardens have magnificent views across the lakes to the mountains.
From the St Mary's Cathedral entrance, follow the path immediately to your right uphill for about 500m to reach the gardens.
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King John's Castle
Carlingford was first settled by the Vikings, and in the Middle Ages became an English stronghold under the protection of the castle, which was built on a pinnacle in the 11th to 12th centuries to control the entrance to the lough. On the western side, the entrance gateway was built to allow only one horse and rider through at a time. King John spent a couple of days here in 1210 en route to a battle with Hugh de Lacy at Carrickfergus Castle in Antrim.
Ask at the tourist office about free tours during Heritage Week in late August.
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Keyser's Lane
Duck your head and dart down Keyser's Lane, a covered passage off North Main St that dates back to Norse times.
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Kerry Literary & Cultural Centre
The audiovisual Writers' Exhibition at this gem of a cultural centre gives due prominence to Listowel's heritage of literary observers of Irish life. Rooms are devoted to local greats such as John B Keane and Bryan MacMahon, with simple, haunting tableaux narrating their lives and recordings of them reading their work. There is a cafe and a performance space where events are sometimes staged.
Keane is remembered with a statue on the opposite side of the square, in which he seems to be hailing a cab. He wrote with wry humour about subjects ranging from Limerick's beggars to the perils of giving up porter as a New Year's resolution.
On Church St, opposite the police station,…
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Inisfallen Island
The first monastery on Inisfallen Island (at 22 acres, the largest of the national park's 26 islands) is said to have been founded by St Finian the Leper in the 7th century. The island's fame dates from the early 13th century when the Annals of Inisfallen were written here. Now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, they remain a vital source of information on early Munster history. On Inisfallen are the ruins of a 12th-century oratory with a carved Romanesque doorway and a monastery on the site of St Finian's original.
You can hire boats (around €5) from Ross Castle to row to the island.
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House of Waterford Crystal
The city's famed Waterford Crystal is almost an icon in name only. A symbol of Irish success during boom times in the 1980s and 1990s, the company fell on hard times after a disastrous series of ownership changes and management decisions that saw debt piled on amid unwise expansion. (The first Waterford glass factory was established at the western end of the riverside quays in 1783 but closed 68 years later because of punitive taxes imposed by the British before its revival last century. It was reconstituted in the 1940s.) In 2009 the company's operations in Waterford County were suddenly closed – as many as 3000 skilled workers had been employed just a few years before.…
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Horn Head
The towering headland of Horn Head has some of Donegal's most spectacular coastal scenery and plenty of birdlife. Its dramatic quartzite cliffs, covered with bog and heather, rear over 180m high, and the view from their tops is heart-pounding.
The road circles the headland; the best approach by bike or car is in a clockwise direction from the Falcarragh end of Dunfanaghy. On a fine day, you'll encounter tremendous views of Tory, Inishbofin, Inishdooey and tiny Inishbeg islands to the west; Sheep Haven Bay and the Rosguill Peninsula to the east; Malin Head to the northeast; and the coast of Scotland beyond. Take care in bad weather as the route can be perilous.
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Historic Buildings
The Mall, a wide 18th-century street built on reclaimed land, was once a tidal inlet. From the river end, its stateliest buildings are John Roberts' City Hall (1788) and beautifully refurbished Theatre Royal, arguably Ireland's most intact 18th-century theatre.
Crumbling fragments of the old city wall include Beach Tower at the top of Jenkin's Lane and Half Moon Tower (both are just off Patrick St). One impossible-to-miss building in Waterford is its landmark 1860s clock tower.
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Hillsborough Courthouse
A fine old Georgian building, the courthouse exhibits various displays describing the working of the courts in the 18th and 19th centuries.
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Hill of Slane
About 1km north of the village is the Hill of Slane, a fairly plain-looking mound that stands out only for its association with a thick slice of Celto-Christian mythology. According to legend, St Patrick lit a paschal (Easter) fire here in 433 to proclaim Christianity throughout the land. Patrick's fire infuriated Laoghaire, the pagan high king of Ireland, who had expressly ordered that no fire be lit within sight of the Hill of Tara. He was restrained by his far-sighted druids, who warned that 'the man who had kindled the flame would surpass kings and princes'. Laoghaire went to meet Patrick, and all but one of the king's attendants – a man called Erc – greeted Patrick…
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High Crosses
Kilfenora is best known for its high crosses, three in the glass-covered cathedral ruins and a large one from the 12th century in a field about 100m to the west. Most interesting is the 800-year-old Doorty Cross. It lay broken in two until the 1950s, when it was re-erected. A panel in the ruins does an excellent job of explaining the carvings that adorn the crosses.
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Harbour Queen Ferries
From the pier opposite the Eccles Hotel.
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Hall of the Red Earl
Back in the 13th century when the de Burgo family ran the show in Galway, Richard – the Red Earl – had a large hall built as a seat of power. Here locals would come looking for favours or to do a little grovelling as a sign of future fealty. After the 14 tribes took over, the hall fell into ruin and was lost. Lost that is until 1997 when expansion of the city's Custom House uncovered its foundations. Now after 10 years of archaeological research, the site is open for exploration. The custom house is built on stilts overhead, leaving the old foundations open. Artefacts and a plethora of fascinating displays give a sense of Galway life some 900 years ago.
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Gráinne's Fort
Gráinne was the daughter of King Cormac. Betrothed to Fionn McCumhaill (Finn McCool), she eloped with Diarmuid, one of the king's warriors, on her wedding night, becoming the subject of the epic The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne. Gráinne's Fort and the northern and southern Sloping Trenches off to the northwest are burial mounds.
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